


^^^'^V.i./S-t/^y y^^ 



HISTORY 



OP 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 

FROM THE ACCESSION OF AUGUSTUS TO THE 
END OF THE EMPIRE OF THE WEST; 

BEING A CONTINUATION OF 

THE HISTORY OF ROME. 

BY 

THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, 

AUTHOR OF "history OF GREECE," " HISTORY OF ROME," 
"history of ENGLAND," &C. 




EDITED 



JOSHUA TOULMIN SMITH, 

AUTHOR OF "progress OF PHILOSOPHY AMONG THE ANCIENTS," "COMPARATIVE 
VIEW OF ANCIENT HISTORY," " NORTHMEN IN NEW ENGLAND," &C. 



BOSTON 
HILLIARD, GRAY, AND COMPANY 
1841.' 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, 
By Harrison Gray, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



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STEREOTYPEI* AT THE 
BOSTON TYPE AND SrEIlEOTYPE FOUNDRY. 



/ 



"- y 



PREFACE 



TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



S^ 

»*»» 



The present valuable addition to the " History of 
Rome " was not published in England when that work 
was prepared for the press in this country. It is, therefore, 
thought better to publish it, as it was published in England, 
as a separate work, than as a second volume of that work, 
although none can feel the history of Rome to be complete 
without tracing it, not only from its rise to its highest pitch 
of greatness, but through the gradual steps of its decline 
and fall. 

The present volume is peculiarly valuable on many 
accounts. It embraces a period, the history of which exists 
in no accessible form, while its facts are of a most interest- 
ing and important nature, as connected with the rise, and 
spread, and influence, and corruptions of the Christian 
church. It forms a connecting link between the times 
and nations properly called ancient, and those properly 
called modern, inasmuch as it displays the first inroads 
of the peoples and races destined gradually to mould the 
latter, upon the strength, and power, and sway of the 
former, and their final rise upon their ruins. 

The same impartiality marks this History, both in its 
treatment of civil and ecclesiastical affairs, as marks Mr. 
Keightley's other histories. 



IV PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

The labor of the editor has been somewhat more called 
for in this volume than in the " History of Rome." More 
points seemed to need note and illustration, it being a 
period less familiar. In some places, too, owing to the 
confusion of authorities, errors of dates, he, had crept in, 
all of which have been carefully altered. In this case, 
the alterations have been made without any distinctive 
mark. In all other cases, the same marks of addition or 
alteration as have been used in the other volumes of this 
series of historical works have been here used. That series, 
comprising the Histories of Greece, Rome, and England, is 
completed with this volume. 

J. T. S. 

Boston, December 1, 1840. 



PREFACE . 



The present work completes my History of Rome. In- 
stead, however, of entitling it a second volume, I have made 
it a distinct work ; for, having been induced to depart from 
ray original plan, and write a History of England after the 
completion of that of the Roman Republic, and fearing lest 
some event might occur to prevent my completing my de- 
sign, I was desirous that a work on which I had employed 
so much time and thought should not present an imperfect 
appearance. A further motive was, that some persons were 
of opinion that the History of the Empire would not be 
read so generally in schools as that of the Republic ; and 
I wished to shun the imputation of forcing any one to buy 
a volume that he might not want. 

This last opinion I am disposed to regard as erroneous. 
There is no part of the Roman history more necessary to 
be read in classical schools than the reio;ns of Augustus and 
his successors to the end of that of Domitian ; for, without 
a knowledge of the history of that period, the writers of 
the Augustan age, and Juvenal, cannot be fully understood. 
Of this period we have actually no history, at least none 
adapted to schools ; and hence arises the imperfect acquaint- 
ance with the historic allusions in Horace and the other 
poets which most readers possess, in consequence of being 
obliged to derive their information piecemeal from annota- 
tions. I have, therefore, taken especial care, in the present 
volume, to obviate this inconvenience ; and I believe that 
scarcely any historic allusion in those poets will be found 
unnoticed. 

Another feature of this work is, the sketch of the history 
of the church, its persecutions, sects, and heresies, during 
the first four centuries, with brief notices of the principal 



VI PREFACE. 

Fathers and their writings. To write a history of the Ro- 
man Empire without including that of the church, would 
have been absurd ; but, as readers might not have sufficient 
confidence in me as an ecclesiastical guide, and as my 
works are chiefly designed for youth, I have deemed it the 
safer course to take as my usual authority the learned and 
candid Mosheim, whose works have stood the test of nearly 
a century, and are always included in the list of those 
recommended to students in divinity. It is the work De 
Rebus Christianis ante Constantinum, in the excellent 
translation of Mr. Vidal, that I have chiefly used. At the 
same time, I must declare that I am by no means a stran- 
ger to the Fathers. Many years ago, I had occasion to 
read them a good deal ; and the opinions which I then 
formed of them as writers and teachers have been con- 
firmed by my renewed acquaintance with their works. 

The advantages, therefore, to be derived by students 
from this volume are, illustrations of the Latin poets, some 
knowledge of the early history of the church, and tolerably 
correct ideas of the causes and course of the decline and 
fall of the mighty empire whose rise and progress have been 
traced in the History of Rome. Nearly one half of it, it 
will be observed, is devoted to the history anterior to the 
commencement of Gibbon's work, which begins with the 
reign of Commodus. As I have already said, that part of 
the history is not generally accessible ; and with respect to 
the remainder, few, I believe, would willingly put Gibbon 
into the hands of youth. 

The same attention has been directed to chronology and 
geography as in my other histories. The Roman proper 
names had become so confused in this period, that it was 
not possible for me to mark the prcenomina, and arrange 
names under their gentes, as I have so carefully done in the 
History of Rome. I have further employed the modern 
forms of the names, as it would have seemed mere affecta- 
tion to use Vespasianus, Constantinus, etc. 

T. K. 

London, August 26, 1840. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

THE CiESARIAN FAMILY. 

CHAPTER 1. 

C. JULIUS CiESAR OCTAVIANUS AUGUSTUS. 

A. u. 725—746. B. c. 29—8. page. 

The Roman empire. — Regulation of it by Augustus. — Augus- 
tus in Spain — in Asia. — Laws. — Family of Augustus.-^ 
Death of Agrippa. — German wars. — Death of Drusus, and of 
Maecenas. — Literature 1 

CHAPTER H. 

AUGUSTUS, (continued.) 

A. tj. 746—767. B. c. 8— A. d. 14. 

Tiberius. — Banishment of Julia. — German wars of Tiberius. — 
Defeat of Varus. — Death and character of Augustus. — Form 
and condition of the Roman empire 20 

CHAPTER HI. 

TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS NERO CiESAR. 

A. u. 767—790. A. D. 14—37. 

Funeral of Augustus. — Mutiny of the legions. — Victories of Ger- 
manicus. — His death. — Civil government of Tiberius. — Rise 
and fall of Sejanus. — Death of Agrippina and her children, — 
Death of Tiberius 39 

CHAPTER IV. 

CAIUS JULIUS CaeSAR CALIGULA. 

A. u. 790—794. A. D. 37—41. 

Accession of Cams. — His vices and cruelty. — Bridge over the 
Bay of Baiae. — His expedition to Germany. — His mad ca- 
prices. — His death _. 67 



Vin CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 
TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CSBSAR. 

A. u. 794—807. A. D. 41—55. page. 

Accession of Claudius. — His character. — His useful measures. — 
Messalina and the freedmen. — Her lust and cruelty. — Claudi- 
us in Britain. — Vicious conduct of Messalina. — Her death. — 
Claudius marries Agrippina. — Is poisoned by her 77 

CHAPTER VI. 

NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR. 

A. u. 808—821. A. D. 55—68. 

Decline of Agrippina's power. — Poisoning of Britannicus. — 
Murder of Agrippina. — Nero appears on the stage. — Murder 
of Octavia. — Excesses of Nero. — Burning of Rome. — Conspir- 
acy against Nero. — Death of Seneca. — Deaths of Petronius, 
Thraseas, and Soranus. — Nero visits Greece. — Galba pro- 
claimed emperor. — Death of Nero 90 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

The Jewish Messiah. — Jesus Christ.- — His religion. — Its propa- 
gation. — Causes of its success. — Church government 116 



PART II. 

EMPERORS CHOSEN BY THE ARMY. 

CHAPTER I. 

GALBA, OTHO, VITELLIUS. 

A. u. 821—823. A. D. 68—70. 
Galba. — Adoption of Piso. — Murder of Galba. — Otho. — Civil 
war. — Battle of Bedriacum. — Death of Otho. — Vitellius. — 
Vespasian proclaimed emperor. — Advance of the Flavians. — 
Storming of Cremona. — Burning of the Capitol. — Capture of 
Rome. — Death of Vitellius 124 

CHAPTER II. 

THE FLAVIAN FAMILY. 

A. u. 823—849. A. D. 70—96. 

State of affairs at Rome. — German war. — Capture and destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem. — Return of Titus. — Vespasian. — Character 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE. 

of his government. — His death. — Character and reign of Ti- 
tus. — rublic calamities. — Death of Titus. — Character of Do- 
mitian. — Conquest of Britain. — Dacian war. — Other wars. — 
Cruelty of Domitian. — His death. — Literature of this period. . 145 



CHAPTER in. 

NERVA, TRAJAN, HADRIAN, ANTONINUS, AURELIUS. 

A. u. 849—933. A. D. 96—180. 

Nerva. — Adoption of Trajan. — His origin and character. — Da- 
cian wars. — Parthian wars. — Death of Trajan. — Observations. 

— Succession of Hadrian. — His character. — Aifairs at Rome. 

— Hadrian in Gaul and Britain — in Asia and Greece — in 
Egypt. — Antinous. — Adoptions. — Death of Hadrian. — His 
character as an emperor. — Rebellion of the Jews. — Reign ot 
Antoninus Pius. — M. Aurelius. — Parthian war. — German wars. 

— Revolt of Cassius. — Death of Aurelius. — His character. . . . 167 



CHAPTER HI. 

COMMODUS, PERTINAX, JULIANUS, SEVERUS. 

A. u. 933—964. A. D. 180—211. 

Commodus, — Conspiracy against him. — Perennis. — Cleander. 
— Maternus and the deserters. — Death of Cleander. — Vices 
of Commodus. — His death, — Elevation and murder of Perti- 
nax. — Empire put to auction. — Pescennius Niger. — Septimius 
Severus. — Clodius Albinus. — March of Severus. — Death of 
Julian. — Praetorians disbanded. — Severus at Rome. — War 
with Niger — with Albinus. — Parthian war. — Family of Se- 
verus. — Plautianus. — Severus in Britain. — His death. — Max- 
ims of government 189 



CHAPTER IV. 
CARACALLA, MACRINUS, ELAGABALUS, ALEXANDER. 

A. u. 964—988. A. D. 211—235. 

Caracalla and Geta. — Murder of Geta. — Cruelty of Caracalla. — 
German war. — Parthian war. — Massacre at Alexandria. — 
Murder of Caracalla. — Elevation of Macrinus. — His origin 
and character. — Conspiracy against him. — His defeat and 
death. — Elagabalus. — His superstition and cruelty. — Adop- 
tion of Alexander. — Death of Elagabalus. — Mamaea. — Alex- 
ander's character and mode of hfe. — Murder of Ulpian. — 
Revolution in Persia. — Persian war. — Alexander in Gaul. — 
His murder. — The Roman army 207 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

MAXIMIN, PUPIENUS, BALBINUS, AND GORDIAN, PHILIP, 
DECIUS, GALLUS, ^MILIAN, VALERIAN, GALLIENUS. 

A. u. 988—1021. A. D. 235—268. page. 

The empire. — Maximin. — His tyranny. — Insurrection in Africa. 

— The Gordians. — Pupienus and Balbinus. — Death of Maxi- 
min. — Murder of the emperors. — Gordian. — Persian war. — 
Murder of Gordian. — Philip. — Secular Games. — Decius. — 
Death of Philip. — The Goths. — Gothic war. — Death of Decius. 

— Gallus. — .^milian. — Valerian. — The Franks. — The Ale- 
mans. — Gothic invasions. — Persian war. — Defeat and captiv- 
ity of Valerian. — Gallienus. — The Thirty Tyrants. — Death 

of Gallienus 223 



CHAPTER VI. 

CLAUDIUS, AURELIAN, TACITUS, PROBUS, CARUS, CARINUS, 

AND NUMERIAN. 

A. u. 1021—1038. A. D. 268—285. 

Claudius. — Invasions of the Goths. — Aurelian. — Alemannic 
war. — War against Zenobia. — Tetricus. — Death of Aurelian. 
— Tacitus. — His death. — Probus. — His military successes. — 
His death. — Cams. — Persian war. — His death. — Death of 
Numerian. — Election of Diocletian. — Battle of Margus 240 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

Persecutions of the church. — Corruption of religion. — The 
Ebionites. — Gnostic heresies. — Montanus. — The Paschal 
Question. — Councils. — The hierarchy. — Platonic philoso- 
phy, its effects. — Rites and ceremonies. — Christian writers. . 259 



PART III. 

THE CHRISTIAN EMPERORS. 

CHAPTER I. 

DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN. 

A. u. 1038—1056. A, D. 285—303. 

State of the empire. — Character of Diocletian. — Imperial power 
divided. — The Bagauds. — Carausius. — Rebellion in Egypt. 
— Persian war. — Triumph of the emperors. — Their resigna- 
tion. — Persecution of the church 286 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER 11. 

GALERIUS, CONSTANTIUS, SEVERUS, MAXENTIUS, MAXIMIAN, 

LICINIUS, MAXIMIN, CONSTANTINE. 

A. u. 1057—1090. A. D. 304—337. page. 

The emperors and Csesars. — Constantine. — Maxentius. — Fate 
of Maximian. — War between Constantine and Maxentius. — 
Constantine and Licinius. — Constantine sole emperor. — Con- 
stantinople founded. — Hierarchy of the state. — The army. — 
^The great officers. — Conversion of Constantine. — Deaths of 
Crispus and Fausta. — The imperial family. — War with the 
Goths. — Death and character of Constantine 299 



CHAPTER HI. 

CONSTANTINE II., CONSTANTIUS, CONSTANS. 

A. u. 1090—1114. A. D. 337—361. 

Slaughter of the imperial family. — Persian war. — Deaths of Con- 
stantine and Constans. — Magnentius. — Gallus. — Julian. — 
Silvanus. — Court of Constantius. — War with the Limigantes. 
— Persian war. — Julian in Gaul. — Battle of Strasburg. — Ju- 
lian proclaimed emperor. — His march from Gaul. — Death of 
Constantius 318 



CHAPTER IV. 

JULIAN, JOVIAN. 

A. u. 1114—1117. A. D. 361—364. 

Reformations of Julian. — His religion. — His tolerance. — Julian 
at Antioch. — Attempt to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. — The 
Persian war. — Death of Julian. — Election of Jovian. — Sur- 
render of territory to the Persians. — Retreat of the Roman ar- 
my. — Death of Jovian 337 

CHAPTER V. 

VALENTINIAN, VALENS, GRATIAN, VALENTINIAN 11., AND 

THEODOSIUS. 

A. u. 1117—1148. A. D. 364—395. 

Elevation of Valentinian and of Valens. — Procopius. — German 
wars. — Recovery of Britain. — Rebellion in Africa. — Quadan 
war. — Death of Valentinian. — His character. — Gratian. — 
The Goths. — The Huns. — The Gothic war. — Battle of Ha- 
drianople and death of Valens. — Ravages of the Goths. — The- 
odosius. — Settlements of the Goths. — Maximus. — Death of 
Gratian. — Defeat of Maximus. — Massacre at Thessalonica. — 
Clemency of Theodosius. — Death of Valentinian II. — Defeat 
and death of Eugenius. — Death and character of Theodosius. — 
State of the empire 358 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER Vi. 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

PAGi:. 

Suppression of paganism. — Religion of the fourth century. — 
State of morals. — The Donatists. — The Arians. — Other her- 
etics. — Ecclesiastical constitution. — Fathers of the church. 
— The Manichseans 387 



CHAPTER Vn. 

HONORIUS, VALENTINIAN III., ETC. 

A. u. 1148—1229. A. D. 395—476. 

Division of the empire. — Rufinus. — The Goths in Greece. — 
Gildo. — Invasion of Italy by Alaric — by Radagaisus. — Mur- 
der of Stilicho. — Claudian. — Alaric's second invasion. — Sack 
of Rome. — Death of Alaric. — Barbarians in the empire. — Val- 
entinian III. — Boniface and ^tius. — Genseric. — His con- 
quest of Africa. — Attila. — Theodoric. — Battle of Chalons. — 
Attila's invasion of Italy. — Murder of^tius — and ofValen- 
tinian. — Maximus. — Sack of Rome by Genseric. — Avitus. — 
Majorian. — Severus. — Anthemius. — Nepos and Glycerius. — 
Romulus Augustus. — End of the empire. — Conclusion 409 



HISTORY 



OF 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



PART I. 

THE C^SARIAN FAMILY. 



CHAPTER L* 

C. JULIUS C^SAR OCTAVIANUS AUGUSTUS. 
A. u. 725—746. B. c. 29—8. 

THE ROMAN EMPIRE. REGULATION OF IT BY AUGUSTUS. 

AUGUSTUS IN SPAIN IN ASIA. LAWS. FAMILY OF 

AUGUSTUS. DEATH OF AGRIPPA. GERMAN WARS. 

DEATH OF DRUSUS, AND OF MAECENAS. LITERATURE. 

The battle of Actium, fought between M. Antonius and 
C. CsBsar Octavianus, in the 723d t year of Rome, termina- 

* Authorities : Velleius Paterculus, Suetonius, Dion Cassius. For 
a fall account of the authorities for this History, see Appendix (A.) 

t We shall use the Varronian chronology in this volume, as it is the 
one followed by Tacitus, Dion, and other historians. [In the former 
part of this work, Mr. K. made use of the Catonian computation. It 
is immaterial which is used, though the Varronian is undoubtedly the 
more correct, and was employed by the editor in the " Chronological 
Table," at the end of that work. The difference is only two years — 
a difference of little importance with respect to the history of the Re- 
public, but of more in reference to the history of the Empire. See the 
editor's " Comparative View of Ancient History, and Explanation of 
Chronological Eras," p. 92, title, Era of the Foundation of Rome. — 
J.T. S.] > 1- > J J 

CONTIN. 1 A 



2 AUGUSTUS. 

ted the contest for. the supreme power in the Roman state, 
which had continued for so many years. After the death of 
his rival, Caesar, now in the thirty-fourth year of his age, saw 
himself the undoubted master of the Roman world. An 
army of forty-four legions* regarded him as its chief; the 
civil wars and the proscription had cut off all the men of em- 
inence at Rome ; the senate and people vied with each other 
in their willingness to accept a sovereign ; and though we may 
despise their servility, reason will evince that they were right 
in their determination ; for he must be strangely inthralled 
by sounds, who, charmed by the mere words liberty and repub- 
lic, looks back through the last century of the history of Rome, 
and prefers the turbulent anarchy, which then prevailed, to 
the steady, firm rule of a single hand. We will add, though 
the assertion may appear paradoxical, that their knowledge 
of Caesar's character may have given them fair hopes of his 
proving an equitable sovereign. 

But, independently of all other considerations, the enor- 
mous magnitude of the Roman empire was incompatible 
with any other form of government than the monarchic, if 
the happiness of the subjects was to be a matter of moment. 
The formation of this empire is perhaps the most striking 
phenomenon in the annals of the world. Fabulous as is 
the early history of Rome, the fact of its having been in its 
commencement nothing more than a single town, or rather 
village, with a territory of a very few miles in compass, may 
be regarded as certain. Step by step it thence advanced in 
extent ; under its kings it became respectable among the 
Italian states : when the supreme magistracy was made an- 
nual, the consuls were anxious to distinguish their year by 
some military achievement; their ambition was sustained by 
the valor and discipline of the legions, and the wisdom of 
the senate cemented together into one strong and firm mass 
the various territories reduced by the arms of Rome. In 
the East, empires of huge extent are at times formed with 
rapidity, but their decay is in general equally rapid ; modern 
Europe has seen great empires formed by a Charlemagne 
and a Napoleon, but they fell to pieces almost as soon as 
erected : the Roman empire, on the contrary, endured for 
centuries. Perhaps the nearest parallel is that of Russia; 
but of this the stability remains to be proved : watched by 

* Orosius, vi. 18. These legions, however, were far from complete, 
some of them being mere skeletons. 



B. C. 29.] RETURN OF AUGUSTUS. 3 

jealous and powerful rivals, its step is stealthy, artful, and 
treacherous, while that of Rome was comparatively open, 
bold, and daring. 

The Roman empire, at the time of which we write, em- 
braced all the countries contained between the Ocean, the 
Rhine, and Euphrates, on the west and east, and the moun- 
tain ranges of the Alps and Hasmus on the north, and that of 
Atlas and the African sandy desert on the south. With respect 
to the condition of the various nations and peoples contained 
within its limits, it may be compared to that acquired with 
such rapidity by England in India. A portion were under 
the immediate government of the sovereign state, while 
others, under the name of allies, possessed a certain degree 
of independence in their internal relations, but their external 
policy was under the control of Rome.* As aristocracy 
and democracy are equally tyrannic to subjects, the oppres- 
sions of the proconsuls and propraetors, set over the provinces 
by the republic, had been such as to make the provincials 
look forward with hope to the establishment of a monarchy 
at Rome. Such, then, was the condition of the Roman world 
at the time when our narrative commences. 

When intelligence of the death of Antonius reached 
Rome, the senate hastened to decree to Csesar the tribunitian 
power for life, a casting-voice in all the tribunals, the power 
of nominating to all the priesthoods, and various other hon- 
ors. They ordered that he should be named in all the pub- 
lic prayers, and libations be poured to him at both public 
and private entertainments. It was directed that the gates 
of Janus should be closed, as war was now at an end.f 

Caesar, meantime, having regulated the affairs of Egypt, 
over which he placed Cn. Cornelius Gallus as governor, set 
out on his return for Rome. He spent the winter in the 
province of Asia, adjusting the affairs of the surrounding 
countries; and during his abode, there the Parthian king 
Phraates sent his son to him to be conducted as a hostage to 
Rome. In the summer (725) he proceeded to Italy, and on 
coming to Rome he celebrated a triumph of three days' du- 
ration for his own victories at Actium and Alexandria, and 

* These allies were either kings or republics. The former were 
those of Judaea, of the Arabs, the Nabathasans, Comagene, Cilicia, 
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Armenia, Thrace, Numidia ; the latter, 
Cydonia and Lampeea in Crete, Cyzicus, Rhodes, Athens, Tyre and 
Sidon, Lycia, and the Ligurians of the Maritime Alps. 

t Dion, li. 19, 20. Suet. Oct. 31. 



4 AUGUSTUS. [b. c. 29. 

those of his lieutenants in Dalmatia and Pannonia. He dis- 
tributed money to the people ; he paid all his debts and for- 
gave his debtors ; and the abundance of money became so 
great in Rome, that the rate of interest fell two thirds.* 

We are told that at this time Caesar had serious thoughts 
of laying down his power and restoring the republic, and 
that he consulted with his friends Agrippa and Msecenas 
on the subject. The historian Dion Cassius has composed 
speeches for these two eminent men, the former of whom he 
makes advocate, though with but feeble reasons, the cause of 
the republic, while the latter lays down the whole system 
of the future monarchy. It is almost needless to state that 
these cannot be genuine speeches; yet the consultation may 
have been held. Ceesar was of a cautious temper ; he had 
the fate of his uncle, the dictator, before his eyes, and the ex- 
amples of Sulla and Pompeius showed that power might be 
resigned with safety. A conspiracy of young Lepidus, the 
son of the triumvir and nephew of Brutus, to assassinate him 
on his return to the city, had lately been discovered, and the 
author put to death by Msecenas, who had the charge of the 
city.f Still it is difficult to believe that Caesar could have 
really intended to divest himself of his authority. 

The counsel of Msecenas having prevailed, or such being 
his previous resolution, Csesar prepared to establish his pow- 
er on a firm basis. The object which he proposed was to 
frame a constitution which, under the forms of the republic, 
should be in reality a disguised military monarchy. With 
this view he conceived it necessary that the senate should 
be limited in number and respectable in character ; where- 
as it was at this time in a state of the utmost degradation ; 
for the dictator, out of hatred to the aristocracy, had in- 
troduced all kinds of rabble into it, and after his death 
M. Antonius had, for money or out of favor, admitted any one 
that chose to seek the dignity, | so that the senators were 
now upwards of a thousand in number. Csesar adopted the 
following course of reformation. Having caused himself 
and Agrippa to be chosen censors, instead of arbitrarily 
ejecting unworthy persons from the senate, he made them 
judges of their own qualifications. Fifty were thus induced 
to resign voluntarily ; he then compelled one hundred and 
forty more to follow their example, and, having thus got rid 

* Dion, li. 21. Suet. Oct. 41. t Veil. Pat. ii. 88. Suet. Oct. 19. 

t Suet. Oct. 35. 



B. C. 28-27.] REGULATION OF THE STATE. 5 

of the most disreputable portion, he went no farther in his 
reformation for the present. As the patrician families had 
been greatly reduced by the civil wars, he augmented their 
number. In order to obviate the danger of civil commotions, 
he renewed the regulation of his uncle for preventing the 
senators from visiting the provinces without permission, ex- 
cepting Sicily and Narbonese Gaul. To quiet their appre- 
hensions on account of the late troubles, and prevent their 
forming any designs against himself in consequence of them, 
he assured them that he had burned all the papers of M. 
Antonius ; and he had in fact burned some, but he retained 
the greater part, to use, if he found it necessary. 

The title of Imperator {^general) had been already con- 
ferred on Caesar, as on his uncle ; * and in his sixth consulate, 
(726,) when he formed the list of the senators, he received 
the denomination of Princeps Senatus, {First-of-the Senate,) 
according to the old republican custom ; and this he always 
used as his favorite title. Having forgiven all debts due to 
the state, and burnt the securities, gratified the people with 
shows, and done other popular acts, Caesar (727) addressed 
the senate, requesting them to take the government now into 
their own hands, and to permit him to retire to the enjoy- 
ment of a private station. He was heard with various emo- 
tions; a few only were in the secret, and knew his object; 
there were some who were willing to take him at his word, 
but the greater number had a horror of the anarchy and 
turbulence of a republic ; all therefore united, from different 
motives, in calling on him not to resign his authority. He 
yielded with well-feigned reluctance. The supreme power 
was conferred on him by a decree of the senate and people, 
and double pay was voted to his guards, to increase their 
vigilance and fidelity. 

Caesar thus attained his object, the legal establishment of 
his power ; but he refused to receive it for more than a pe- 
riod of ten years, alleging that by that time the state would 
be brought to a condition of order and tranquillity. He, 
further, though accepting the charge of superintendence 
over the whole empire, would not assume the direct govern- 
ment of all the provinces ; but, making a division of them 
into two classes, committed the more peaceful and orderly, 

* Hence our word Emperor. It was usually bestowed by the soldiers 
on their general after a victory. It now became the constant title of 
the monarch, being prefixed instead of postfixed (as in the ordinary 
way) to his name. 

1* 



6 AUGUSTUS. [b. c. 27-24. 

such as Africa, Asia, Baetic Spain, to the senate and people ; 
while he reserved to himself the administration of the more 
warlike and turbulent, such as Gaul, northern Spain, and 
Egypt. The governors of the former were to be selected by 
the senate out of their own body by lot ; they were to hold 
their office for the space of a year, under the title of Procon- 
sul, whether they had been consuls or not ; their jurisdiction 
was to be purely civil, and they were therefore neither to 
carry swords nor wear the military habit. Csesar himself 
was to appoint directly the governors of the remaining prov- 
inces; they were to be named Legates and Propraetors, to 
continue in office as long as he pleased, and to wear a sword 
and the military habit, as having the power of life and death 
over the soldiery. A proconsul was to be preceded by twelve, 
a proprcBtor, by six lictors. Quaestors appointed by Csesar 
were to be sent into all the provinces to collect and regulate 
the revenue, and all the governors and inferior officers were 
to receive fixed salaries, and not be allowed to pay them- 
selves, as under the republic. 

The senate decreed at this time that laurels should be 
placed before the doors of Caesar's house on the Palatium, 
and an oak-leaf-crown be suspended over them, to indicate 
that he was perpetual victor over the enemies of the state, 
and perpetual preserver of the citizens. It was also pro- 
posed to confer on him some peculiar appellation. He him- 
self would have preferred that of Romulus, as being a second 
founder of the state ; but finding that it would excite suspi- 
cion of his aiming at royalty, he acquiesced in that of Augus- 
tus, which was proposed by L. Munatius Plancus, and which 
indicated a certain degree of sanctity.* 

Augustus, (as we shall henceforth name him,) having thus 
laid the foundations of his power, quitted Rome under the 
pretext of completing the conquest of Britain.! Finding 
Gaul in an unsettled state, he remained some time there, to 
reduce it to order. The incursions of the Asturians and 
Cantabrians into the Roman provinces in Spain then induced 
him to assume the conduct of the war against them. He, 
however, found them a foe in contending with whom little 
glory was to be acquired ; for they would not descend from 
their mountains and give battle in the plain, and they har- 

* The Tiber overflowed on the night following the decree. Dion, 
liii. 20. This is thought to be the inundation noticed by Horace, 
Carm. i. 2. 

t Hor. Carm. i. 35, 29. 



B. C. 24-33.] ILLNESS OF AUGUSTUS. 7 

assed his troops by ambushes in the woody glens. Vexa- 
tion and fatigue causing him to fall sick, he retired to 
Tarraco, leaving the command with C. Antistius, by whorp 
and T. Carisius some advantages were gained over these 
mountaineers. Augustus then discharged such of the sol- 
diers as had served out their leojal time, and founded for 
them in Lusitania a town named Augusta Emerita, (Merida.) 
He then returned to Rome, (730,) having been absent during 
the better part of three years.* He had hardly, however, 
quitted Spain, when the Cantabrians and Asturians again 
took arms ; and though the propraetor L. ^Emilius chastised 
them, these hardy mountaineers were never, properly speak- 
ing, conquered, and they always retained their rude inde- 
pendence. 

At this time also (730) avarice or the lust of conquest in- 
duced Augustus to order ^lius Gallus, the governor of Egypt, 
to undertake an expedition against the Happy Arabia.! In 
the attempt, however, to cross the sandy desert, his troops suf- 
fered so severely from the heat of the sun, the bad quality 
of the waters, and a novel kind of disease, and they were so 
harassed by the native tribes, that, after losing the greater 
part of them, Gallus was obliged to give up his design ; and 
the conquest of Arabia was never again attempted by the 
Romans,| 

Augustus, it would seem, long continued to be affected by 
the disease with which he had been first attacked in Spain. 
The year after his return to Rome, (731,) he had a fit so 
severe as to leave little hopes of his life ; and believing him- 
self to be near his end, he gave to Cn. Calpurnius Piso, his 
colleague in the consulate, in presence of the principal sen- 
ators and knights, a book containing an account of the 
forces and the revenues of the state ; he at the same time 
placed his ring on the finger of Agrippa, but said not a word 
of who should be his successor, though every one had ex- 
pected him to appoint his nephew Marcellus, the son of his 
sister Octavia, to whom he had given in marriage his only 
daughter Julia. A physician named Antonius Musa, how- 

* Hor. Carm. iii. 14 ; 8,21. 

t Dion, lii. 29. Strabo, xvi. p. 780 ; xvii. p. 819. Plin. H. N. vi. 28. 
Horace seems to refer to this expedition, Carra. i. 29. 

t [The chief cause of the failure of this expedition seems to have 
been the treachery of Syllasus, chief minister to Obodas, king of the 
Nabathsean Arabs, through whose country the Romans had to pass. 
See Strabo, lib. xvi. — J. T. S.] 



8 AUGUSTUS. [b. c. 22-21 . 

ever, restored him to health by a system of cold bathing and 
cold drinking. When he recovered, he wished to have his 
will read out in the senate, to prove that he had not named a 
successor ; but the senators would not permit it to be done. 
It is doubtful whether it was his intention to restore the re- 
public, or if he wished his place in the state to be occupied 
by Agrippa : the latter, which is more consonant to his char- 
acter, seems to be the more probable supposition. The sen- 
ate now conferred on him the tribunitian power for life,* 
gave him the power of bringing before them any matter he 
pleased, even when not consul, and granted him a perpetual 
proconsular authority. 

Whatever the designs of Augustus might have been with 
respect to Marcellus, they were frustrated at this time by the 
death of that promising youth in the twentieth year of his 
age — an event which caused a general grief, as he had in- 
herited the amiable qualities of his mother Octavia, and was 
beloved of all people.t 

Augustus had now been consul for nine successive years ; 
and, feeling his power sufficiently established, he regarded 
that dignity as no longer needful to him. The consuls there- 
fore for the year 732 were M. Claudius Marcellus and L. 
Aruntius ; but the year proving to be one of disease and 
scarcity, the superstitious people fancied that their calamities 
arose from Augustus's not being consul, and surrounded the 
senate-house, threatening to burn the senate in it if they did 
not proclaim him dictator ; then, seizing the rods of the 
twenty-four lictors, they brought them to him, imploring him 
to assume that office, and also that of overseer of the corn- 
market. The latter be accepted ; but, satisfied with possess- 
ing all the power of the dictatorship, he declined the invidi- 
ous title, and even rent his garments when the people would 
have forced him to accept it. He in like manner declined 
the censorship for life when it was proffered to him, but he 
always used a censorian authority. 

Beloved as Augustus was by the people in general, there 
were still some unquiet spirits at Rome, who could not sub- 
mit to the rule of a single person, how moderate soever it 

* The former decree of this power (above, p. 3) had not, it would 
seem, been carried into effect. Tacitus (Ann. iii. 56) says that Augus- 
tus devised the term tribunitia potesias ; while Dion (xlii. 20) asserts 
that it was conferred on Caesar the dictator. Lipsius reconciles them 
by showing that Caesar did not use it publicly. 

t Propert. iii. 18. See Virg. Mn. vi. 861, seq. 



B. C. 20-19.] AUGUSTUS IN ASIA. 9 

might be. A conspiracy against Augustus was detected at 
this time, at the head of which was Fannius Caspio, and in 
which L. Mureena, the brother-in-law of Maecenas, was said 
to be implicated. They made no defence on their trial, and 
being found guilty by their judges, they were put to death. 

Augustus now resolved to visit and regulate the eastern 
parts of the empire, and leaving Rome, he first proceeded to 
Sicily, (733.) While he was there, the consular elections at 
Rome gave occasion to so much tumult and disturbance, 
that his return was eagerly desired and urged by the more 
prudent citizens. He would not, however, comply with tlieir 
wishes ; but in order to keep the city in order, he summoned 
Agrippa from Asia, where he was then residing ; and having 
made him divorce his wife, (though she was his own niece,) 
and marry Julia, the widow of Marcellus,* he committed to 
him the government of Rome, where his able administration 
speedily restored order and tranquillity. 

From Sicily, Augustus, attended by his stepson Tiberius, 
proceeded to Greece ; and having regulated the affairs of 
that now insignificant country, he passed over to Samos, 
where he spent the winter. In the spring (734) he proceeded 
to Asia, and thence to Syria. He arranged all matters con- 
cerning the petty monarchies which were in alliance with or 
under the protection of Rome,t and then returned to Samos 
for the winter. Here he received numerous embassies from 
various nations, among whom was one from the Indians, to 
ratify the treaty of peace and amity which had been already 
concerted. Among the presents which they brought was a 
man without arms, who bent a bow and shot arrows, and 
held a trumpet to his mouth, with his feet. They also pre- 
sented him with some tigers, being the first of this species 
ever brought to Europe. | 

While Augustus was in Asia, Phraates, the Parthian king, 
who had hitherto eluded the fulfilment of his engagement to 
restore the standards and prisoners taken from Crassus an-d 
Antonius, fearing a war, hastened to perform it. We are not 



* Maecenas, when consulted, on this occasion, is reported to have 
said to him, " You have made him (Agrippa) so great that he must 
either be your son-in-law or be put to death." 

t It was at this time that he sent Tiberius with an army to settle a 
disputed claim to the throne of Armenia. Some of the Epistles of 
Horace (i. 3. 8, and perhaps 9. and ii. 2) were written at this time. 
See also Ep. i. ]2, 26 seq. 

I Dion, liv. 9. Pliny, N. H. viii. 17, 

B 



10 AUGUSTUS. [b.c. 19-18. 

informed of the number of soldiers thus restored to their 
country, but they probably bore only a small proportion to 
the number originally captured ; for many were dead, and 
many more preferred remaining in a country to which they 
had now become habituated. By Augustus himself this was 
always regarded as the most glorious event in his life, and to 
commemorate it he built a temple on the Capitol to Mars the 
Avenger, ( Ultor,) while the poets who adorned his reign 
poured forth their strains in commemoration of the peaceful 
triumph.* 

A new sedition, on account of the consular elections, 
which proceeded even to bloodshed, recalled Augustus to 
Rome, (735.) The senate, as usual, would have lavished 
honors on him, but he would only allow of the erection of 
an altar to Fortuna Redux, and the insertion of the day of 
his return among the public holidays, under the title of 
Augustalia. He was appointed inspector of manners for five 
years, and given the censorian power for the same period, 
and the consular for life. Agrippa was at this time in Spain; 
for after he had established order at Rome, he found it 
necessary to proceed to Gaul, which was suffering from se- 
dition and from the incursions of the Germans, whence he 
was called to Spain by a new insurrection of the Canta- 
brians. Having, not without much difficulty, reduced this 
restless people, he returned to Rome, declining, with his 
usual moderation, the triumphal honors which had been de- 
creed him on the proposal of Augustus himself 

The senate was still too numerous a body for the place in 
the state which Augustus wished it to occupy. He thought 
he might now venture to make a further reduction in it ; but 
the difficulties which he encountered were such, that, instead 
of bringing it down, as he proposed, to three hundred, he 
was obliged to be content with a house consisting of six 
hundred members. Even this moderate reduction gave oc- 
casion to several real or imputed conspiracies against him 
and Agrippa. 

To keep up a respectable aristocracy in the state was a 
favorite object with this prudent prince, who was well aware 
of the evils of oligarchy and [an ignorant] democracy. It 
was with this view that he labored to render the senate lim- 



* Hor. Epist. i. 18, 56 ; Carm. iv. 15, 6. Propert. ii. 10 ; iii. 4, 9 ; 
5, 48 ; iv. 6, 79. Ovid, Fast. vi. 647 ; Trist. ii. 1, 228. See also Virg. 
^n. vii. 606. Hor. Carm. iii. 5. 



B.C. 17-12.] FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS. 11 

ited in number and respectable in character. As a further 
means, he most anxiously, both by law and precept, en- 
couraged marriage among the members of the senatorian 
and equestrian orders, (736.) * But the profligacy of man- 
ners which then prevailed was such that all the honors, and 
rewards, and immunities, which he proposed were of but little 
avail. A practice was even introduced by which the inten- 
tion of the laws might be eluded, while the benefits pro- 
posed by them were attained : it was that of betrothal with 
infants, to obviate which he enjoined that no betrothal should 
be valid except in cases where the marriage might be con- 
summated within the space of two years; that is, with no 
child under ten years of age. It was unfortunate for Augus- 
tus that his own character and conduct gave but little weight 
to his regulations on the subject of matrimony, for he was 
notoriously unfaithful to his wife Livia. 

It may be of use to give here some account of the family 
of Augustus. By his first wife, Scribonia, he had one child, 
a daughter, named of course Julia; he had no children by 
Livia, and we hear nothing of any natural children. He first 
married Julia to his nephew Marcellus, the son of his sister 
Octavia by her first husband, Claudius Marcellus ; and on 
his death he obliged Agrippa to divorce his wife, who was the 
sister of Marcellus, and espouse the widow, by whom he had 
two sons, named Caius and Lucius, both of whom Augustus 
adopted. By her first husband, Tib. Claudius Nero, Livia had 
two sons, Tiberius and Drusus, the latter of whom was born 
after her marriage with Augustus. The former was married 
to Agrippina, the daughter of Agrippa by his first wife, a 
daughter of Cicero's friend Atticus. 

In the 737th year of Rome, Augustus and Agrippa cele- 
brated with great magnificence the Saecular Games.t Au- 
gustus then deemed it advisable to absent himself for some 
time from Rome, and having sent Agrippa to Asia, he pro- 
ceeded to Gaul on the pretext of the invasions of the Ger- 
mans requiring his presence ; but some said that his secret 
motive was the desire of enjoying more freely the society of 
Terentia, the wife of Maecenas, with whom he had long car- 
ried on an intrigue. He took with him his stepson Tiberius, 
and after an absence of about three years, spent in regulating 

* See Hor. Carm. iii. 6, 17, seq.; iv. 5, 12, seq. ; 15, 9, seq.; Carm. 
Ssec. 17 seq, 

t They were the fifth that had been celebrated. Dion, liv. 18. Cen- 
sorin. 17. Horace composed the hymn sung on the occasion. 



1^ AUGUSTUS. [b. C. 12* 

the concerns of Gaul, Spain, and the German provinces, he 
returned to Rome, (741,) and in the following year (742) he 
assumed the dignity of Pontifex Maximus, now vacant by 
the death of Lepidus, his former colleague in the triumvirate, 
whom (though he at all times treated him with studied indig- 
nity) he allowed to hold that honorable office as long as he 
lived. 

Agrippa, who had been all this time in Asia, returned to 
Rome likewise in 741 ; and Augustus, whose confidence in 
him never abated, had the tribunitian power conferred on 
him for another period of five years. He also committed to 
him the charge of suppressing an expected invasion of the 
Pannonians. This people, however, when they heard of the 
approach of Agrippa, laid aside all thoughts of war. He 
therefore led back his troops, and in the following spring 
(742) he fell dangerously ill in Campania. Augustus, who 
was then celebrating the festival of the Q,uinquatrus at Rome, 
hastened to him, but found him dead. He caused the corpse 
to be conveyed to Rome, where he himself pronounced the 
funera!l oration over it in the Forum, and then laid his ashes 
in his own monument, though the deceased had prepared one 
for himself in the Field of Mars. Agrippa had not completed 
his fifty-first year when he was thus prematurely carried off,* 

There are few characters in history more pleasing to con- 
template than that of M. Vipsanius Agrippa. Born in a 
humble station, he raised himself entirely by his own merit, 
and by the honorable fidelity which he always exhibited to 
the man to whose fortunes he was attached. To prince and 
people he was equally acceptable : the former viewed in him 
a sincere friend and an able minister and general ; the latter 
regarded him as a patron and a benefactor. His wealth, 
which was immense,! he devoted to the public service, ben- 
efiting the people and adorning the city. He thus raised at 
a great expense several aqueducts, particularly that which 
conveyed the Aqua Virgo to the Field of Mars, (735.) He 
adorned (728) the porticoes built round the Septa, in the 
same place, by Lepidus, with marble plates and with paint- 
ings, naming them Julian in honor of Augustus. He also 
built a beautiful portico to the temple of Neptune, and erected 
the circular temple named the Pantheon, | which still exists. 

* Plin. N. H. vii. 8. 

t He owned the entire Chersonese, (Dion, liv. 29 ;) he had also large 
estates in Sicily (Hor. Ep. i. 12) and elsewhere. 

t Pliny (N. H. xxxvi. 15) says it was dedicated to Jupiter Ultor. 



B.C. 11.] FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 13 

By his will he left his gardens and the baths named after him 
to the Roman people. Augustus, who was his principal heir, 
gave in his name a donation of one hundred drachmas a man 
to the plebeians. 

The place of Agrippa was not to be supplied ; but as some 
one in his station was absolutely necessary to Augustus, he, 
much against his inclination, made choice of his stepson 
Tiberius. As he seems to have made it a rule that the per- 
son next to himself should be the husband of his daughter 
Julia, he obliged Tiberius to divorce Agrippina, the daughter 
of Agrippa, to whom he was most sincerely attached, and 
who had borne him one child and was bearing another, and 
espouse Julia. He then sent him against the Pannonians, 
who had resumed their arms when they heard of the death 
of Agrippa. 

We will now for some time direct our attention to the 
foreign relations and military affairs of the empire. 

Within the limits of the empire the only people who ven- 
tured to resist the arms of Rome was the Basque population 
of the mountains in the north of Spain, who, secured by the 
nature of their country, though often defeated and reduced, 
were never completely conquered. On the southern frontier 
in Africa the native tribes gave occasional employment to 
the governors of the adjoining provinces. In the year 732,, 
the ^Ethiopians, led by their queen Candace, invaded Upper 
Egypt, and advanced as far as the city of Elephantina; but 
they were speedily repelled by the governor C. Petronius, who 
invaded their country in return, and forced them to sue for 
peace. On the side of Parthia all was quiet during the reign 
of Augustus ; but the tribes in the vicinity of the Danube 
and Rhine, who were destined to be Rome's most dangerous 
foes, even now required the employment of large armies to 
repel or subdue them, and more than once they sent alarm, 
even into the city. 

The reduction of Thrace to a province gave occasion to 
some warfare ; for the native tribes, unused to submission, 
and defended by the ranges of Rhodope and Hasmus, were 
prone to rebellion. A general rising among them took place 
in 743; and, after lasting three years, it was at length sup- 
Dion (liii. 27) would seem to intimate that it was consecrated to Mars 
and Venus. He thinks that it was named from its resemblance in form 
to the heaven. The supposition of its being dedicated to all the gods. 
is a modern error. 

2 



14 AUGUSTUS. [b. C. 11. 

pressed by the governor L. Piso, who thereby obtained the 
triumphal honors. 

The Roman frontier had, in the latter times of the repub- 
lic, been gradually advanced into Illyricum, the region lying 
to the north of the Adriatic, and commercial relations vi^ere 
formed with the nations who dwelt farther inland. Their 
own unquiet spirit, and the arrogance and oppression of the 
Romans, naturally gave occasion to hostilities. In 738 two 
of the Alpine tribes, named Cammunians and Venians, took 
arms ; but they were speedily reduced by P. Silius, the pro- 
praetor. Immediately after, the Pannonians, aided by the 
Noricans, invaded Istria ; but they were repelled also by 
Silius, who then carried his arms into Noricum and reduced 
it. Shortly after, the Rgetians of the Alps, and the Vindeli- 
cans* who dwelt between them and the Danube, began to 
make incursions into Gaul and Italy, and they seized and put 
to death such of the Romans or allies whom they found travel- 
ling through their country. Augustus committed the task of 
reducing them to his stepson Drusus, who gave them a de- 
feat in the hills of Tridentum, ( Trent ;) and, as they still plun- 
dered Gaul, he caused Drusus's brother Tiberius to attack 
them on that side; and by the united efforts of the two broth- 
ers and their lieutenants, the mountaineers were completely 
brought under subjection.! The more vigorous portion of 
their male population was carried away, and only those left 
who were too feeble for insurrection. The Pannoflic war 
already alluded to broke out in 743. It was conducted and 
successfully terminated by Tiberius, who was decreed for it 
a triumph by the senate ; but Augustus would only allow him 
to receive the triumphal ornaments. 

Drusus was meantime carrying on war in Germany. The 
Roman dominion having been extended by CsBsar, the dictator, 
to the Rhine, the Ubians, Vangionians, and some other Ger- 
man tribes, | had been induced to cross that river and settle 
on its left bank, under the protection and authority of the 
Romans, whose manners they gradually adopted. The ter- 
ritory in which they dwelt was hence named the Upper and 



* Dion (liv. 22) mentions only the RsBtians, but he appears to include 
the Vindelicans in that name. The Vindelicans are expressly men- 
tioned by Suetonius, (Tib. 9,) Velleius, (ii. 95,) and Horace, (Carm. iv. 
4, 18.) 

t See Horace, Carm. iv. 4 and 14, 

t See Appendix (C.) for an account of the German tribes. 



B.C. 13-11.] GERMAN WARS. 15 

Lower Germany; it extended from the modern town of 
Schlettstadt into the district of Cleves. The Romans had 
several fortified posts along the Rhine, but they had as yet 
no footing beyond that river. They had, however, the usual 
relations of trade and intercourse with the peoples of the op- 
posite bank. 

In 729 the Germans murdered some Romans who had gone 
over in the usual manner into their country. To punish them, 
M. Vinicius, who commanded on the left bank of the river, 
led his troops against them, and his successes gained him the 
honor of the triumphal ornaments. Nothing further occurred 
till the year 738, when the tribes named Sicambrians, Usipe- 
tans, and Tencterans, seized and crucified the Roman traders 
in their country, and then, crossing the Rhine, ravaged Gaul 
and the Germanics. M. Lollius, the legate, led his troops to 
engage them ; but they laid an ambush for the cavalry, which 
was in advance, and routed it. In the pursuit they came un- 
expectedly on Lollius himself, and defeated him, taking the 
eagle of the fifth legion. The intelligence of this disgrace 
caused, as we have seen, Augustus to set out for Gaul ; but 
the Germans did not wait for his arrival, and when he came, 
they obtained a truce on giving hostages. 

Augustus remained nearly three years in Gaul. When 
leaving it, (741,) he committed the defence of the German 
frontier to his stepson Drusus. His departure imboldened 
the Sicambrians and their allies to resume hostilities ; and as 
disaffection appeared likely to spread among the Gauls, Dru- 
sus took care to secure their leading men by inviting them to 
Lugdunum, {Lyons,) under pretext of the festival which was 
to be celebrated at the altar raised there in honor of Augus- 
tus : then watching the Germans when they passed the Rhine, 
he fell on and cut them to pieces, and crossing that river 
himself, he entered the country of the Usipetans, and thence 
advanced into that of the Sicambrians, laying both waste, 
(742.) He embarked his troops on the Rhine and entered 
the ocean, and sailing along the coast, formed an alliance with 
the Frisians who inhabited it. His slight vessels, however, 
being stranded by the ebb of the tide on the coast of the 
Chaucans, he was indebted for safety to his Frisian allies. 
He then led his troops back, and put them into winter-quar- 
ters. In the spring (743) he again crossed the Rhine, and 
completed the subjection of the Usipetans ; and taking advan- 
tage of the absence of the Sicambrian warriors, who had 



1^ AUGUSTUS. [b. C. 10-9. 

marched against the Chattans on account of their refusal to 
join their league, he threw a bridge over the Lippe, (Lupia,) 
and marching rapidly through the Sicambrian country, and 
entering that of the Cheruscans, advanced as far as the Weser, 
(Visurgis.) Want of supplies, however, forced the Romans 
to return without passing that river. In their retreat they 
were harassed by the Germans, and on one occasion they fell 
into an ambush, where they were only saved from destruction 
by the excessive confidence of the enemy, who, regarding 
them as already conquered, attacked them in disorder, and 
were therefore easily repelled by the disciplined legionaries. 
Drusus built a fort at the confluence of the Elison and the 
Lippe, and another in the Chattan country on the Rhine, and 
then returned to Gaul for the winter. The following year 
(744) Augustus, on account of the German war, went and took 
up his abode at Lugdunum, while Drusus again crossed the 
Rhine, and carried on the war against the Sicambrian league, 
which had now been joined by the Chattans, who became in 
consequence the principal sufferers. At the end of the cam- 
paign, Augustus and his stepsons returned to Rome. 

The next year (745) Drusus passed the Rhine for the 
fourth time. He laid waste the Chattan territory, whence he 
advanced into Suevia, which he treated in a similar manner, 
routing all that resisted him ; then entering the Cheruscan 
country, he crossed the Weser, and advanced till he reached 
the Elbe, (Albis,) wasting all on his way. Having made a 
fruitless effort to pass this river, he led back his troops to the 
Rhine ; but his horse having fallen with him on the way, he 
received so much injury by the fall, that he died before he 
reached the banks of that stream.* His body was conveyed 
to Rome, where the funeral orations were pronounced by 
Augustus and Tiberius, and his ashes were deposited in the 
Julian monument. The title of Germanicus was decreed to 
him and his children, and, among other honors, a cenotaph 
was raised by the army on the bank of the Rhine. 

Drusus was only in his thirtieth year when he thus met 
with his untimely fate. He was married to the younger 
daughter of Octavia by M. Antonius, the triumvir, by whom 
he had several children ; but only three, Germanicus, Clau^ 
dins, and Livilla, survived their father. The character of 
Drusus stood hio-h both as a soldier and a citizen ; and it 

* Livy, Epit. 140. 



B. C. 8.] LATIN LITERATURE. 17 

was generally believed that he intended to restore the repub- 
lic, if ever he should possess the requisite power.* It is 
even said that at one time he wrote to his brother proposing 
to compel Augustus to reestablish the popular freedom, but 
that Tiberius showed the letter to his stepfather.t Some 
even, in the usual spirit of calumniating Augustus, went so 
far as to hint that he caused Drusus to be taken off by poison 
when he neglected to give instant obedience to his mandate 
of recall, issued in consequence of that information-! 

Death had already (743) deprived Augustus of his sister 
Octavia, and within two years after the loss of Drusus, he had 
to lament that of Maecenas, his early friend, adviser, and 
minister, who died toward the end of the year 746, leaving 
him his heir, notwithstanding the affair of Terentia. 

Maecenas was a man in whom were united the apparently 
opposite characters of the refined voluptuary and the able 
and judicious statesman. When called on to exert himself 
in public affairs, no man displayed more foresight, vigor, and 
activity ; but the moment he could withdraw from them, he 
hastened to relax into an ease and luxury almost more than 
feminine. Satisfied with the abundance of wealth which he 
derived from the bounty of Augustus, and content with hav- 
ing the power to bestow honors and offices on others, he 
sought them not for himself, and to the end of his life he re- 
mained a simple member of the equestrian order in which he 
had been born. It does not appear, that, like Agrippa, he 
devoted his wealth to the improvement or ornament of the 
city ; but he was the patron, and in some cases the benefac- 
tor, of men of letters ; and while the poetry of Virgil and 
Horace shall be read, (and when shall it not?) the name of 
Maecenas will be pronounced with honor by thousands to 
whom that of the nobler Agrippa will be comparatively un- 
known. Such is the power of literature to confer everlast- 
ing renown ! 

This was in effect the most splendid period of Rome's 
literary history. Though we cannot concede that literary 
genius is the creation of political circumstances, yet we may 
observe that it usually appears synchronously with great po- 
litical events. It was during the Persian and Peloponnesian 
wars, that the everlasting monuments of the Grecian muse 

* Suet. Claud. 1. Tac. Ann. i. 33. f Suet. Tib. 50. 

t Suet. Claud. 1. Tac. Ann. ii. 82. 



18 AUGUSTUS. [b. c. 8. 

were produced ; and it was while the fierce wars excited by 
religion agitated modern Europe, that the most noble works 
of poetic genius appeared in Italy, Spain, and England. So 
also the first band of Roman poets were coexistent with the 
Punic wars, and the second and more glorious, though per- 
haps less vigorous, display of Italian genius rose amid the ca- 
lamities of the civil wars. 

The first of these poets in name, as in genius, is P. Vir- 
gilius Maro, who was born at Andes, a village near Mantua, 
in 684, and died at Brundisium, in 735. Residing in the 
country, and fond of rural life, his first poetic essays were 
pastorals in the manner of Theocritus. In this attempt, how- 
ever, his success was not eminent ; for though his verse is 
sweet and harmonious, and his descriptions are lovely, he at- 
tains not to the nature and simplicity of his Grecian master. 
He next wrote his Georgics, a didactic poem on agriculture ; 
and here his success was beyond doubt ; for it is the most 
perfect piece of didactic poetry that the world possesses. He 
then made the daring attempt of competing with Homer in 
the fields of epic poetry ; and though the ^neis is inferior in 
fire and spirit to the Ilias, and possesses not the romance and 
the domestic charms of the Odyssey, and as an epic must even 
perhaps yield to the Jerusalem Delivered of modern Italy, it 
is a poem of a very high order, and one which will never 
cease to yield delight to the cultivated mind. In thus select- 
ing Roman subjects, Virgil proved his superior judgment; 
and he assumed the place which had been occupied by En- 
nius, and became the national poet. 

CI. Horatius Flaccus, born at Venusium in Apulia, in 689, 
is distinguished for the graceful ease, mild, philosophic spirit, 
and knowledge of men and the world,* displayed in his satires 
and epistles. He had also the merit of transferring the lyric 
measures of Alcseus, Sappho, and other Grecian poets, to the 
Latin language. His odes of a gay and lively, or of a bland, 
philosophic tone, are inimitable ; in those of a higher flight 
he has less success, and the appearance of effort may at times 
be discerned. Horace died in 746, in the same year with his 
friend and patron Msecenas. 



Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico 
Tangit, et admissus circum prsecordia ludit, 
Callidus excusso populum suspendere naso. 

Persius, Sat. i. 116. 



B.C. 8.] LATIN LITERATURE. 19 

Albius Tibullus and Sex. Aurelius Propertius wrote love 
elegies addressed to their courtesan-mistresses under feigned 
names, such as Neaera and Cynthia. The former approaches 
nearer than any of the ancient poets to modern sentimental- 
ity ; the latter shows extensive mythologic learning, correct 
taste, and a degree of delicacy and purity hardly to be ex- 
pected from an amatory poet of that age. 

Varius, Valgius, Cornelius Gallus, Plotius Tucca, Varro 
Atacinus, and a number of other poets, wrote at this period. 
They are praised by their surviving contemporaries, but their 
works have perished. — a proof, perhaps, that their merit was 
not considerable. They were all imitators of the Greeks. 

P. Ovidius Naso belongs to the second period of the reign 
of Augustus, whom, he survived. He was born in 711, at 
Salmo, in the Pelignian country, and died in 771, in exile, at 
Tomi, on the Euxine. Ovid was a poet of original genius, 
which he tried on a variety of subjects. He wrote Heroic 
Epistles in the names and characters of the heroes and her- 
oines of Grecian antiquity ; love elegies ; a didactic poem 
called the Art of Love ; Metamorphoses ; and a poem on the 
Roman Fasti. He also composed a tragedy, named Medea, 
which was much praised by the ancient critics. Grace, ease, 
and gayety, prevail throughout the compositions of this poet ; 
but he was deficient in vigor, and was too prone to trifle on 
serious subjects ; and in his amatory poetry he was very far 
from imitating the delicacy of Tibullus and Propertius. Yet, 
with all his defects, he is a delightful poet. The origin of 
his exile to Tomi in 762 is a mystery which can never be un- 
veiled. He ascribes it himself to two causes, his Art of Love, 
and his having seen somethincr which he should not see. The 
epistles written after his exile evince a spirit quite broken, 
and exhibit little trace of the poet's former powers. 

The reign of Augustus was also the period of the appear- 
ance of the eloquent and picturesque history of the Roman 
republic by T. Livius. This great historian was born at Pa- 
dua (Patavium) in 695, and he died in 771, the same year 
with Ovid. His history (of which the larger and more valu- 
able part is lost) extended from the landing of JEneas to the 
death of Drusus in 745. 



20 AUGUSTUS. [b. c. 8-6. 

CHAPTER II.* 

AUGUSTUS. (CONTINUED.) 

A. u. 746-767. B. c. 8-a. d. 14. 

TIBERIUS. BANISHMENT OF JULIA. GERMAN WARS OF TI- 
BERIUS. DEFEAT OF VARUS. DEATH AND CHARACTER 

OF AUGUSTUS. FORM AND CONDITION OF THE ROMAN 

EMPIRE. 

Twenty-one years had now elapsed since the return of 
Augustus, victorious over Antonius, and his assumption of the 
sole supreme authority in the state. In that period, death 
had deprived him of his nephew, his nobler stepson, and his 
two ablest and most attached friends. His hopes now rested 
on his two grandsons and adopted sons Caius and Lucius, and 
their posthumous brother, named Agrippa after their father ; 
on Tiberius, and on the children of Drusus. 

Caius was now (746) in his thirteenth year ; his brother 
was three years younger. As they grew up, the characters 
which they displayed were such as caused pain to their 
grandfather. They were in fact porphyrogeniti, (the first 
that Rome had seen,t) and therefore were spoiled by public 
and private flattery, and displayed insolence and presumption 
in their conduct. Though Augustus was fully aware of the 
defects in the character of Tiberius, he could not avoid as- 
signing him the place in the state for which his age, and his 
abilities and experience, qualified him. He had, therefore, 
on the death of Drusus, committed to him the conduct of 
the war in Germany; and, in 746 and the following year, the 
Roman legions were led by him over the Rhine, but no re- 
sistance was offered by the Germans. The next year, (748,) 
Augustus conferred on him the tribunitian power for a period 
of five years, and appointed him to go to regulate Armenia, 
where affairs were now in some disorder. | 

Tiberius, however, had resolved on retiring for a time from 
public life. The pretext under which he sought permission 
from Augustus, was a satiety of honors and a longing for 

* Authorities same as for the preceding chapter, 
t [That is, the first princes-horn; having been born since the as- 
sumption of supreme authority by Augustus. — J. T. S.] 
t Zonaras, x. 35. 



B.C. l.-A.D. 2.] TIBERIUS. ^ 21 

quiet and repose. What he afterwards assigned as the real 
cause was his wish not to appear to stand in the way of 
Caius and his brother, who were now growing up to man's 
estate.* The improper conduct of his wife, Julia, was also 
given as a reason for his retirement, or his expectation by 
absence to increase his authority in the state in case his 
presence should be again required : it was even said that he 
was banished by Augustus for conspiring against his sons. 
It was with great difficulty that he obtained permission from 
his mother and stepfather to put his design into execution. 
We are told that, to extort it, he menaced to starve himself, 
and actually abstained from food for four days. When he 
had thus drawn from them a reluctant consent, he went down 
privately with a very few attendants to Ostia, and, getting 
on board a vessel, proceeded along the coast of Campania. 
Hearing that Augustus was taken ill, he halted ; but, finding 
that his so doing was imputed to a design of aiming at the 
empire in case of his death, he set sail, though the weather 
was not very favorable, and proceeded on his voyage to 
Rhodes. 

He had selected this island for his retreat, having been 
pleased with its amenity and salubrity, when he visited it on 
his return from Armenia, in the year 735. He adopted a pri- 
vate mode of life, dwelling in a moderately-sized house, and 
living on terms of equality with the respectable inhabitants. 
He was visited in his retreat by all those who were going out 
as proconsuls or legates to Asia. When Caius Caesar was 
sent out to regulate the affairs of Armenia, (753,) Tiberius 
passed over to Chios to wait on him. The young man showed 
him all marks of respect as his stepbrother and elder ; but 
the insinuations of M. Lollius, whom Augustus had given 
him as a director, soon alienated his mind from Tiberius. 

The period of his tribunitian power being now expired, 
Tiberius sought permission to return to Rome, avowing that 
his motive for quitting it had been the wish to avoid the sus- 
picion of emulation with Caius and Lucius. As they were 
now grown up, and were able to maintain their station as the 
second persons in the state, his absence was no longer requi- 
site, and he wished to be permitted to revisit his friends and 
relatives. He, however, received a positive refusal ; and all 
his mother could obtain was his being named a legate, in 
order to cover his disgrace. He remained at Rhodes two 
years longer, when Caius, without whose approbation Augus- 

* Suet. Tib. 10. Veil. Pat. ii. 99, 



52 AUGUSTUS. [a.d. 2-5. 

tus had determined to do nothing in his case, having quar- 
relled with Lollius, gave his consent to his recall. He was 
therefore permitted to return, but on the express condition 
of abstaining from public affairs, (755.) 

During the absence of Tiberius from Rome, the dissolute 
conduct of his wife, Julia, after having long been generally 
known, had at length (752) reached the ears of her father. 
Julia had been unchaste even when the wife of the excellent 
Agrippa ; some of the noblest men of Rome were among her 
paramours ; and she had at length become so devoid of 
shame and prudence as to carouse and revel openly at night 
in the Forum, and even on the Rostra. Augustus had al- 
ready had a suspicion that her mode of life was not quite cor- 
rect ; when now convinced of the full extent of her depravity, 
his anger knew no bounds. He communicated his domestic 
misfortune to the senate ; he banished his dissolute daughter 
to the isle of Pandateria, on the coast of Campania, whither 
she was accompanied by her mother, Scribonia. He forbade 
her there the use of wine and of all delicacies in food or 
dress, and prohibited any person to visit her without his special 
permission. He caused a bill of divorce to be sent her in the 
name of her husband, Tiberius, of whose letters of interces- 
sion for her he took no heed. He constantly rejected all 
the solicitations of the people for her recall ; and, when one 
time they were extremely urgent, he openly prayed that they 
might have wives and daughters like her.* At length, after 
a period of five years, he allowed her to remove to the town 
of Rhegium, on the continent, and made her treatment some- 
what milder. 

Among the adulterers of Julia was Julus Antonius, the son 
of the triumvir by Fulvia.t Augustus had treated him with 
the greatest kindness ; he had given him in marriage the 
daughter of his sister Octavia, and had conferred on him all 
the honors and dignities of the state. His ingratitude was 
therefore without excuse, and he expiated his offence by a 
voluntary death.:|: Of the rest, such as Sempronius Grac- 
chus, Q,uinctius Crispinus, and Appius Claudius, some were 
executed and others banished. 

* Her freedwoman and confidant Phcfibe having hung herself when 
the discovery was made, Augustus declared that he would sooner have 
been the father of Phoebe than of Julia. 

t It was to him that Horace addressed the second ode of the 4th book 
of his Odes, probably in the year 739. 

t Veil. Pat. ii. 100. 



A. D. 6.] GERMAN WARS. 23 

It was in his family and his domestic relations that Augus- 
tus was destined to feel the adverse strokes of fortune. In 
755, his grandson Lucius fell sick on his way to Spain, and 
died at Massalia; and, eighteen months later, (757,) Caius 
breathed his last in Lycia, as he was on his return to Italy. 
Augustus had now only one grandson remaining, the posthu- 
mous child of Agrippa, of the same name with his father. 
He therefore adopted him and Tiberius on the same day, 
saying with regard to the latter, " This I do for the sake of 
the republic." He at the same time made Tiberius adopt 
Germanicus, the eldest son of his brother Drusus, although 
he had a son of his own by his first wife, also named Drusus. 

Tiberius was invested with the tribunitian power for 
another period of five years, and was immediately despatched 
to assume the conduct of the German war, which had been 
going on for the last three years.* In his first campaign, he 
passed the Weser, and, having kept the field till the month 
of December, he placed his troops in winter quarters at the 
head of the Lippe, and returned himself to Rome. In the 
following campaign, (758,) having received the submission 
of the Chaucans and broken the power of the Langobards, 
who were regarded as the fiercest of the German tribes, he 
advanced to the banks of the Elbe; while his fleet, having 
safely circumnavigated the coast from the mouth of the 
Rhine to that of the Elbe, joined the land army in this river, 
and aided its operations. 

The plan of the campaign for the ensuing year (759) was 
a very extensive one. The people named Marcomans had 
quitted their original seats, and occupied the country named 
Bohemum, {Bohemia,) which lay in the heart of the great 
Hercynian forest. Their prince, named Maroboduus, was 
one of those men of superior talent, who have so often, amo^^g 
barbarous tribes, evinced the power of mental over corporeal 
qualities. He had established an undisputed authority over 
his own nation, and reduced all his neighbors to submission 
by arms or by persuasion. He maintained a disciplined army 
of 70,000 foot and 4000 horse ; and, as his southern frontier 
was little more than two hundred miles from the Alps, it was 
in his power suddenly to pour a large army even into Italy ; 
and he was always ready to support revolt in the German 
or Illyrian provinces. Tiberius, a far-seeing statesman, re- 
solved to anticipate the danger, and prepared to make a com- 
bined attack on the Marcoman prince. He therefore sent 

* Veil. Pat. ii. 104. 



24 AUGUSTUS. [a. d. 6-9. , 

orders to C. Sentius Saturninus to invade Bohemia in the 
north from the country of the Cattans, while he himself 
should enter it from the south with the army of Illyricum, 
which he had assembled for the purpose at Carnuntum, in 
Noricum. 

But this extensive plan was frustrated by a formidable in- 
surrection of the Dalmatians ; for this people, who ill bore 
the weight of tribute imposed on them by the Romans, when 
they saw the troops that were in their country drawn away 
for the German war, and at the same time, in consequence 
of orders given them to prepare an auxiliary force, became 
aware of their own numbers and strength, at the impulsion 
of a Dalmatian named Bato, resolved to assert their inde- 
pendence, The Breucans, a Pannonian tribe, led by another 
Bato, joined them, and speedily all Pannonia shared in the 
revolt. 

We should only weary the reader were we to enter into 
the details of this war, which lasted for the space of three 
years, employed fifteen legions and an equal number of aux- 
iliaries, and was regarded as the most dangerous foreign war 
that had occurred since the days of Hannibal ; for the seat 
of it was the confine of Italy ; so that Augustus declared 
openly in the senate, that, if proper measures were not adopt- 
ed, the enemy might come within view of the city on the 
tenth day. The Pannonians were also remarkably familiar 
with the language, arts, and knowledge of the Romans. The 
forces of the confederates were estimated at 200,000 foot 
and 9000 horse, under able and active leaders. In order to 
raise a force sufficient for the war, Augustus was obliged to 
call out all the veterans, to employ freedmen as soldiers, and 
to purchase for this purpose able-bodied slaves from their 
masters and mistresses. To add to his difficulties, Rome 
was at this time suffering severely from famine. 

In the conduct of the war, Tiberius certainly proved him- 
self to be an able general, and his adopted son Germanicus, 
to whom Augustus had given a command, laid the founda- 
tion of his future fame. The success of the war was com- 
plete, the whole country, from the Adriatic to the Danube, 
and from Noricum to Thrace and Macedonia, being reduced 
to complete submission, (762.)* 

* When Bato surrendered and appeared before the tribunal of Tibe- 
rius, the latter asked him why they had revolted. " Yourselves," re- 
plied he, " are the cause, for you send to your flocks, wolves, and not 
dogs or herdsmen." Dion, Iv. 33; Ivi. 16. 



A.D. 9.] VARUS. 25 

This dangerous war was hardly brought to a close, when 
intelligence arrived of a dreadful disaster which had be- 
fallen the Roman arms in Germany. Since the reduction 
of a part of the country beyond the Rhine, a military force 
had been maintained in it, and some forts were erected ; the 
Germans were gradually adopting Roman manners, and ac- 
customing themselves to Roman institutions. Had they been 
prudently managed, they might have been civilized and made 
useful subjects; but the present commander in Germany, P. 
duinctilius Varus, who had been governor of Syria, and was 
therefore in the habit of meeting with a prompt obedience 
to all his commands, forgetting the difference between un- 
warlike Syrians and barbarous Germans, began to treat them 
with rigor, and to impose heavy taxes. Their native spirit 
was roused, and they secretly formed a plan for delivering 
themselves from the foreign yoke. Their principal leader was 
Arminius, [Hermann,) son of Sigimer, a Cheruscan prince 
who had long served with the Roman armies, and had ob- 
tained the freedom of the city and the equestrian rank. The 
plan adopted being to lull Varus into security, they made a 
show of yielding the most cheerful obedience to all his com- 
mands, and thus induced him to quit th^ Rhine, and advance 
toward the Weser. Sigimer and Arminius were continually 
with him ; and so completely had they won his confidence,, 
that when Segestes, prince of the Chattans, had given him- 
information of the plot, and advised him to seize himself 
Arminius and the other leaders. Varus refused to believe 
in it. 

When all the necessary preparations had been made, some 
of the more distant tribes were directed to take up arms, in 
order that Varus might be attacked with more advantage 
when on his march to reduce them. Arminius and the 
others remained behind, under the pretext of raising troops 
with which they vi^ere to join him ; and, as soon as he was- 
gone, they fell on and slaughtered the various detachments, 
which, at their own particular desire, he had stationed in 
their country ; then, collecting a large force, they followed' 
and came up with the legions when in a place suited to their 
purpose. 

The Roman army, consisting of three legions, with their 
requisite cavalry and auxiliaries, in all of upwards of 24,000 
men, accompanied by women and children, by wagons and 
beasts of burden, was advancing without regular order, as 
in a friendly country. They had reached a place surround- 

CONTIN. 3 D 



26 AUGUSTCJS. ' [a. D. 10-12. 

ed by hills, and covered with marshes, and with trees, which 
they were obliged to cut down in order to effect a passage. 
The weather was tempestuous, and, in the midst of the wind 
and rain, while they were floundering in the mire, and im- 
peded by the standing stumps and fallen trunks of the trees^ 
they found themselves assailed on all sides by the Germans. 
After suffering much from their desultory assaults, they 
seized a dry spot, where they encamped for the night, having 
burnt or abandoned the greater part of their baggage. Next 
day they attempted to march through the woods; but the 
wind and rain still continued, and the persevering enemy 
gave them no rest. At length Varus and his principal 
officers, seeing no chance of escape, rather than be taken or 
slain by the barbarians, terminated their lives with their own 
hands. The soldiers now lost all couracre : some imitated 
the act of their officers, others ceased to resist, and suffered 
themselves to be slain or taken ; and, had not the barbarians 
fallen to plunder, not a man had escaped captivity or death. 
The legate Numonius Vala* broke away with the greater 
part of the horse, and made for the Rhine. 

When intelligence of this calamity arrived at Rome, the 
consternation which prevailed was extreme. Since the days 
of Crassus, no such misfortune had befallen the Roman 
arms. It was feared that the victorious Germans would in- 
vade Gaul, and even push on for Italy and Rome itself, and 
there was no army of either citizens or allies on foot to re- 
sist them. Augustus shared in the general alarm. He rent 
his raiment in grief; he vowed (what had only been done 
in the Cimbric and Mar.sic wars) great games to Jupiter 
Optimus Maximus, if the state should return to a safer con- 
dition;! he doubled the guards in the city, and prolonged 
the command of the governors of the provinces. Finding 
that none of the men of the military age came forward to 
enroll themselves, he made them cast lots: and of those 
under five-and-thirty every fifth, of those over that age every 
tenth man, was to lose his property and to be infamous. 
Yet so degenerate were the Romans become, that even this 

* This is probably the person to whom the fifteenth epistle of the 
1st book of Horace's Epistles is addressed. 

t Any one acquainted with the character of Augustus will not 
easily believe, that, according to the report (ferunt) mentioned by 
Suetonius, (Oct. 23,) and Dion, (Ivi. 23,) he let his hair and beard grow 
for several months, and used to dash his head against the doors, 
crying, " Quinctilius Varus, give back the legions." Augustus, we 
— -.» ohcprve. was at this time upwards of seventy years of age. 



A. D. 13, 14.] LAST ILLNESS OF AUGUSTUS. 21 

severe measure failed to fill the ranks, and Augustus found 
it necessary to put some of them to death. He finally took 
the veterans by lot, and as many freedmen as he could col- 
lect, and, having thus formed an army, he sent Tiberius in 
all haste with it to Germany. At the same time, he ordered 
all the Gauls and Germans at Rome to quit the city, and he 
removed his German guards to some of the islands off the 
coast, lest they should revolt.* Tiberius led his army over 
the Rhine, (763,) but met with no enemies. In the follow- 
ing year, he and Germanicus again appeared in Germany, 
but, as before, no opportunity was given for fighting. In 
765, Tiberius, with the permission of Augustus, triumphed 
in the usual manner for the Pannonian war. 

The domestic events of late years had not been numerous. 
Augustus still was doomed to suffer in his own family. His 
granddaughter Julia, whom he had married to L. iErailius 
Paulus, imitated the profligacy of her mother, and he found 
it necessary to banish her. Her brother, the young Agrippa, 
proved of so violent and dangerous a temper, that Augustus, 
having at first renounced him and placed him in retirement 
at Surrentum, at length, finding him growing worse every 
day, had him removed to the isle of Planesia, near Corsica, 
and a guard of soldiers set over him. 

The life of Augustus still continued to be menaced by 
conspiracies. In 757, one was discovered, in which the 
person chiefly concerned was L. Cornelius Cinna, the 
grandson of Pompeius Magnus, and of the dictator Sulla. 
Augustus was long in doubt how to act, for experience had 
shown him that the execution of those engaged in one plot 
did not prevent the formation of another. He was finally 
induced by the arguments of his wife, Livia, to try the effects 
of lenity. He called the conspirators before him, and, after 
remonstrating with them, pardoned and dismissed them ; and 
he even made Cinna consul for the following year. The 
effect of such generosity on the minds of them and others 
was such, that no plots were formed against him during the 
remaining years of his life.t 

* He had had Spanish guards till after the battle of Actiura : he 
then employed Germans. Suet. Oct. 49. 

t Dion, Iv. 14—22. Seneca de Clem. i. 9. Suetonius (Oct. 19) 
mentions various persons who had conspired against Augustus, but 
without giving the dates of their attempts. Such were those of M. 
Egnatius Rufus, (see Dion, liii. 24,) of Plautius Rufus, and L. Paulus, 
of Asinius, and of Audasius, a forger, Epicadius, a Parthinian hybrid, 



28 AUGUSTUS. [a. d. t4. 

The year after the triumph of Tiberius, Augustus received 
the supreme power for a fifth period of ten years. He then 
invested Tiberius anew with the tribunitian power, and he 
took a census of the people for the third time. In the fol- 
lowing year, (767,) having sent Germanicus to command in 
Germany, he proposed sending Tiberius to regulate the 
affairs of Illyricum, intending to dismiss him at Beneventum, 
after they should have assisted at the gymnic games, cele- 
brated every fifth year in his honor by the people of Neapo- 
lis. He proceeded by land as far as Astura, and, contrary 
to his usual habit, he left that place in his litter by night for 
the sake of the cool air. He was, in consequence, attacked 
by a complaint in his bowels; but he did not heed it. He 
went on shipboard, and sailed leisurely along the coast of 
Campania. He spent four days in the isle of Caprea3, passed 
then over to Neapolis, and viewed the games. He thence 
proceeded to Beneventum, where he dismissed Tiberius, and 
then returned to Nola, growing every day worse and worse. 
Messengers were sent to recall Tiberius, with whom he is 
said to have held a long private conference, after which he 
spoke no more of public affairs.* On the day of his death, 
he called for a mirror, and had his hair arranged and his 
cheeks plumped out. He asked those present if they 
thought that he had played his part well in the drama of 
life, adding the formula in which actors at the conclusion 
besought the applause of the audience. He then dismissed 
them ; and, as he was inquiring, of some who were jiist 
come from Rome, after the health of one of Drusus's daugh- 
ters who was sick, he breathed his last in the arms of Livia, 
saying, " Livia, live mindful of our marriage, and fare- 
well ! " f The chamber in which he expired, it may be ob- 

and of Teleplius, a slave. It was the plan of Audasius and Epicadius 
to release Julia and Agrippa, and take them to the armies, and to 
attack Augustus and the senate. 

* Veil. Pat. ii. 123. Suet. Oct. 98. Tib. 21. Dion (Ivi. 31) says 
that the more general and credible account was, that he died before the 
arrival of Tiberius, but that Livia kept his death secret. Tacitus 
(Ann. i. 5) leaves the matter uncertain. 

t Livia was accused of poisoning him (Dion, Ivi. 30; Tac. Ann. i. 
5) by means of some fresh figs which he gathered with his own hand 
off the tree, but which she had previously anointed. This, by the 
way, was odd diet for a man with a bowel complaint. The reason 
assigned was, that Augustus had some months before gone secretly to 
Planesia to see Agrippa. We consider charges of this nature to be 
entitled to little credit. 



CHARACTER OF AUGUSTUS. 29 

served, was that in which his father had died seventy-two 
years before. 

Augustus died on the afternoon of the 19th of August 
He wanted little more than a month of completing his 
seventy-sixth year. Computing from the battle of Actiura, 
he had exercised the supreme authority in the Roman 
world for a space of forty-four years.* In person Augus- 
tus was below the middle size ; his countenance was at all 
times remarkably serene and tranquil, and his eyes had a 
peculiar brilliancy. He was careless of his appearance, and 
plain and simple in his mode of living, using only the most 
ordinary food, and wearing no clothes but what were M'oven 
and made by his wife, sister, and daughters. In all his do- 
mestic relations he was kind and affectionate ; he was a mild 
and indulgent master, and an attached and constant friend. 
He was fond of witnessing the sports of the Circus and 
other public shows, though it may be that he only sought 
thus to increase his popularity. He also took pleasure in 
playing at dice, but not for gain, as he did not exact his 
winnings. The heaviest charge made against him is his in- 
continence ; but, as we have above observed, this is evident- 
ly greatly exaggerated. 

In his public character, as the sovereign of the Roman 
empire, few princes will be found more deserving of praise 
than Augustus. He cannot be justly charged with a single 
cruel, or even harsh action, in the course of a period of 
forty-four years. On the contrary, he seems in every act to 
have had the welfare of the people at heart. In return, 
never was prince more entirely beloved by all orders of his 
subjects ; and the title, Father of his Country, so spontane- 
ously bestowed on him, is but one among many proofs of 
the sincerity of their aifection. 

Nothing, however, is more common with modern writers, 
than to treat Augustus as a tyrant t who had destroyed lib- 

* Exactly 44 years minus 14 days. The reign of Augustus is also 
computed by some from the death of Caesar in 710, = 57^ 5™ 4^ ; by 
others from his first consulate in 711, = 56y ; or from the triumvirate 
in 712, = 55y 8"^ 23^ ; or, finally, from his entrance into Alexandria in 
724, = 437 10^^. See Clinton ad A. D. 14. 

t Montesquieu (Considerations, &c. ch. 13) terms him a rus6 tyran. 
In a note he says that he uses the word tyran in its Greek and Latin 
sense, signifying one who had overturned a democracy. The employ- 
ment of the term, when thus explained, is not very objectionable. 
Gibbon (ch. iii.) calls Augustus a crafty tyrant, without any limitation 
of the terra. 

3* 



30 AUGUSTUS. 

erty, and had raised his own power on the servitude of his 
country. But liberty had vanished from Rome long before 
his time, and surely no friend of mankind would prefer the 
preceding anarchy to the peace and tranquillity which he 
introduced and maintained. It was the evil destiny of 
Rome, not the fault of Augustus, that his successors did 
.not resemble himself; it was necessity, not choice, that 
made him raise Tiberius to the second place in the state, 
and his evident desire that his own place should be filled by 
the noble Agrippa, vouches for his love of his country. In 
fine, we recognize in Augustus a man of consummate pru- 
dence,* and of a temperament naturally mild and moderate^ 
raised by the force of circumstances to supreme power, and 
exercising it for the advantage of those over whom he ruled. 

The Roman empire, as modelled by Augustus, presented 
the following appearance : — 

Augustus himself was at its head, but not in the manner 
of emperors and kings of ancient or modern times. He was 
surrounded by no pomp ; no guards attended him ; no offi- 
cers of the household were to be seen in his modest dwell- 
ing ; he lived on terms of familiarity with his friends ; he 
appeared, like any other citizen, as a witness in courts of 
justice, and in the senate gave his vote as an ordinary mem- 
ber. His power arose from the union in his person of all 
the high and important offices of the state. As High Pon- 
tiff, he had the greatest authority in affairs of religion, and 
as Censor, the right to rea;ulate the morals of all orders of 
the people. By possessing the consular power for life, he 
enjoyed the supreme authority, civil, judicial, and military ; 
and the tribunitian power, with which he was also invested, 
being in its nature the constitutional check on that of the 
consuls, his authority was thus without legal control. His 
titles were. First of the Senate, [Princeps Senatus^f) which 
was his favorite one; Augustus and General, (Imperator :^ 
that of Master, {Dominus,) when oflfered to him, he always 
rejected with indignation. Caesar was merely his family 
name. 

It may have been that Augustus saw the importance of a 
respectable aristocracy in a monarchy ; but it is more prob- 

* As a general, too, he was extremely cautious. A battle, he said, 
should never be fought, unless the hope of advantage was visibly 
greater than the fear of loss. The contrary conduct he compared to 
that of a man who should angle with gold hooks. Suet. Oct. 25. 

t Hence the modern terra prince. 



SENATE AND PEOPLE. 31 

able that he was under the influence of the love of con- 
servation of ancient institutions, so strong in the character 
of every Roman. At all events, he knew that, if a senate 
was to remain a part of the constitution, it was necessary 
that its members should possess both character and property. 
Hence, as we have seen, he twice purged the senate,* and, 
though he did not reduce it as low as he designed, he 
brought it down to little more than one half of its number 
at the time when he obtained the sole power, and he raised 
the qualification for a seat in the house to 1200 sestertia.t 
He required the senate to meet only on the Kalends and Ides 
of each month, and he excused their attendance entirely in 
the sickly months of September and October, excepting a 
committee chosen by lot, in order to make the requisite de- 
crees. To give greater solemnity to their acts, he directed 
that each member, before taking his place, should offer wine 
and incense on the altar of the deity in whose temple the 
senate sat. The first row of seats at every public show was 
ordered to be reserved for the senators. Their sons were also 
allowed to wear the laticlave, or senatorian dress, and to be 
present at the sittings of the senate ; and when they entered 
the army, they were made at once, not merely tribunes of the 
legions, but colonels of horse, {prcBfecti alarum.) The sena- 
torian order thus assumed the form of a body of nobility, in 
the modern sense of the term ; the senate formed a council 
of state, a high court of justice, and a legislative assembly, 
in some points resembling the British house of lords, in 
others the French chamber of peers. In order to give a 
share of the honors and emoluments of the state to as many 
of the two higher orders as possible, he devised a great num- 
ber of new offices ; he increased the number of the praetors, 
and he introduced the practi-ce of making suffect consuls, 
i. e. consuls in addition to the ordinary ones of the year. | 
The populace at Rome, in consequence of the civil wars, 

* He made a trifling purgation in 757, (Dion, Iv. 13.) Perhaps this 
was tlie occasion of the conspiracy of Cinna in that year. When se- 
lecting the senate in 736, he wore, it was said, his sword, and had a 
corselet under his tunic, and ten of the most able-bodied of his friends 
stood round his seat, and, according to Cremutius Cordus, no senator 
was admitted until he had been searched, (Suet. 35.) At this time 
many plots were said to be formed against him and Agrippa. Dion, 
liv. 15. 

1 Suet. Oct. 41. 

I This was afterwards carried to so great an extent, that in the reign 
of Commodus there were 25 consuls in one year. 



32 AUGUSTUS. 

and of its degradation by the enfranchisement of numerous 
slaves, no longer bore a resemblance to the commonalty of 
the better days of the republic. It was factious and turbu- 
lent, and at the same time mean and servile. A body of 
disciplined troops vv^as therefore always at hand to repress its 
excesses, and Augustus sought at the same time to keep it 
in good temper by gifts and entertainments. The greatest 
care was taken that the supply of corn from the provinces 
should be regular and abundant. In times of scarcity Au- 
gustus gave corn gratis, or at a very low price, to the peo- 
ple; he also frequently made distributions of money [con- 
giarid) among them ; and in the Forum, the Circus, the 
Amphitheatre, the Septa, and other public places, he enter- 
tained them with shows of all kinds. Sometimes they were 
assembled to witness the bloody combats of gladiators, or the 
less cruel contests of wrestlers ; at others they were amused 
with chariot or foot races, or the hunting and slaughter 
of wild beasts fetched from various parts of the empire — 
even the crocodiles of the Nile being brought to Rome to 
gratify the populace with the sight of their expiring agonies. 
On one occasion, a large lake was dug in the Field of Mars, 
for the exhibition of a naval combat. At the same time, 
Augustus endeavored to purify and elevate the character of 
the people of Rome, by throwing difficulties in the way of 
manumission, and by granting citizenship very sparingly to 
strangers.* 

To adorn and improve the city was another great object 
with Augustus, and he effected so much by his own exer- 
tions and the cooperation of his friends, that when dying he 
could boast that he had found the city built of brick, and 
left it built of marble. t Thus he built (726) a temple of 
Apollo on the Palatine, with a portico and a library, and a 
temple of Jupiter Tonans on the capitol. He also made a 
new Forum with a temple in it of Mars Ultor. Others of 
his works bore the names of his wife and the other members 
of his family. Such were the portico of Livia and that of 
Octavia, the theatre of Marcellus, and the portico and basili- 

* Suet. Oct. 40. [The idea of " purifying and elevating their char- 
acter " by such exclusive and ungenerous means as these, while their 
lowest propensities were daily fed and nourished by brutal combats 
such as have been named, savors somewhat of a satire on all that is 
truly pure, and lofty, and noble, in the character of a people. — J. T. S.] 

t Id. ih. 28. Dion, Ivi. 30. [This was a somewhat more effectual 
means of elevating their character. It was, at any rate, refining their 
taste, which is a great step towards elevating character. — J. T. S.] 



IMPROVEMENTS OF THE CITY. S3 

ca of Caius and Lucius. Tiberius built the temples of Con- 
cord and of Castor and Pollux; Marcius Philippus that of 
Hercules of the Muses ; Munatius Plancus that of Saturn ; 
L. Cornificius that of Diana. Asinius Pollio built the hall 
or court (atrium) of Liberty, and Statilius Taurus a mag- 
nificent amphitheatre. The works of Agrippa have been 
already enumerated. 

To secure the city against inundations, Augustus cleared 
out and widened the bed of the Tiber. He first divided the 
city into wards or quarters, (regiones,) fourteen in number, 
and subdivided into streets, (vici,) with ofiicers over them, 
chosen out of the inhabitants by lot. He established a body 
of watchmen and firemen to prevent the conflagrations which 
were so frequent. He caused all the great public roads to 
be repaired and kept in order. As the confusion and license 
of the civil wars had, as is usually the case, given origin to 
illegal associations, and to the formation of bands of rob- 
bers, (grassatores,) he took every care to suppress them. He 
therefore, as his uncle had done, dissolved all guilds but the 
ancient ones, and he disposed guards in proper stations for 
the prevention of highway robbery. He caused all the slave- 
houses (ergastula) throughout Italy to be visited and exam- 
ined, it having been the practice to kidnap travellers, (free- 
men and slaves alike,) and shut them up and make them work 
in these prisons. In order to facilitate the administration 
of justice, he added upwards of thirty days to the ordinary 
court-days, and he increased the number of the decuries of 
jurors, and reduced the legal age of jurymen from five-and- 
twenty to twenty years. He himself sat constantly to hear 
causes and administer justice. 

Every wise sovereign will be desirous to see a proper 
sense of religion prevalent among his subjects. Augustus 
accordingly turned his serious attention to this important 
subject. He rebuilt or repaired the temples which had been 
burnt or had fallen ; he reestablished and reformed various 
ancient institutions which had gone out of use, such as the 
augury of health, the jlamen dialis, the secular games, the 
Lupercal rites, &c. He increased the number and the hon- 
ors and privileges of the priesthoods, particularly that of the 
Vestal Virgins ; he caused all the soothsaying books which 
were current, to the number of upwards of two thousand, to 
be collected and burnt, only retaining the Sibylline oracles,* 

* [For an excellent account of the Sibylline oracles, see Prideaux's 
Connection of the Old and New Testament, under the year 13. — J. T. S.] 

E 



34 AUGUSTUS. 

which he had carefully revised and placed in two cases under 
the statue of the Palatine Apollo. His efforts, however, re- 
mained without effect; infidelity and its constant concomi- 
tant, immorality, were spread too widely for him or any 
human legislator to be able to check them, and the polythe- 
ism of Greece and Rome was destined to fall before a far 
purer system of faith and doctrine. 

We have already spoken of the exertions made by Augus- 
tus to overcome the prevalent aversion to marriage. The 
principal cause of this was the extreme dissoluteness of man- 
ners at the time, exceeding any thing known in modern days ; 
but poverty prevented many a man of noble birth from un- 
dertaking the charge of supporting a wife and family, and 
the court which was paid by greedy legacy-hunters to the 
rich and childless * had charms for many of both sexes. The 
promotion of marriage had always been an object of attention 
with the Roman government. One of the questions invaria- 
bly put to each person by the censors was, whether he was 
married or not; and there was a fine, named uxorium, laid on 
old bachelors. Caesar the dictator had sought to encourage 
marriage by offering rewards ; but the first law on the sub- 
ject was the Julian De maritandis ordinibus of 736, and, this 
having proved ineffectual, a new and more comprehensive 
law, embracing all the provisions of the Julian, and named 
the " Papia-Poppsean," (from the consuls M. Papius and Q,. 
PoppsBus,) w^as passed in the year 762.t 

The principal heads of this law were, 1. All persons ex- 
cept senators might marry freedwomen. 2. No maiden was 
to be betrothed under the age of ten years. 3. Widows were 
allowed to remain siugle two years, divorced women a year 
and a half, before contracting a second marriage. 4, Those 
who had children were to have various honors and advan- 
tages, such as better seats at the public spectacles, the pref- 
erence when candidates for honors and in the allotment of 
the provinces, immunity from guardianship and other per- 
sonal burdens, etc. etc. 5. Bachelors could receive no 
legacies except from their nearest relations, and the child- 
less only the half of what was left them. 6. A woman whose 
guilt was the cause of a divorce was to lose her dower. 

The evil, however, was too deeply seated to be eradicated 
by law, and it still remained a subject of complaint. Of as 

* See Horace, Sat. ii. 5. 

t See Dion, Ivi. 1 — 10. He remarks that neither of the consuls had 
wife or child. 



THE AKMT. Sb 

little avail was the sumptuary law which he caused to be 
enacted ; he even failed in his desire to bring the toga again 
into general use.* 

Such were the principal civil regulations made during the 
reign of Augustus. The changes in the military system were 
also considerable. 

In Rome, as in all the ancient republics, the army had 
been nothing more than a burgher militia, in which every 
freeman of the military age was required to serve when called 
on. The long foreign wars, however, in which Rome was 
afterwards engaged, gradually converted the original militia 
into a standing army, and war became a profession, as in 
modern times. The character of the soldier had also deteri- 
orated since the change in the mode of enlistment made by 
C, Marius ; and the Roman soldiery, further demoralized by 
the various civil wars, stood no higher in moral worth than 
the mercenary troops of modern Europe. The extent of the 
Roman empire, with warlike nations on its frontiers, coi;ld 
only be guarded by a regular standing army, disciplined and 
always in readiness to take the field. Accordingly, in the 
speech which Dion ascribes to Maecenas, we find that states- 
man thus advising Augustus : t " The soldiers must be kept 
up, immortal, citizens, subjects, and allies, in some places 
more, in some less, through each nation as need may require, 
and be always in arms, and always engaged in military exer- 
cises ; having their winter quarters in the most suitable 
places, and serving for a limited period, so as to have some 
part of their life to themselves before old age. For, living so 
far away from the frontiers of the empire, and having ene- 
mies dwelling on every side of us, we could not have troops 
ready for any sudden emergency ; but if we allow all who 
are of the suitable age, to possess arms and to practise mili- 
tary exercises, they will be always raising factions and civil 
wars; and again, if we prohibit them to do so,, and then call 
upon them to serve on any occasion, we shall run the risk 
of having none but raw and undisciplined troops. I there- 

* The lacerna, a kind of military great-coat of a dark color and with 
a hood to it, was generally worn instead of the toga. Augustus one 
day seeing, as he sat on his tribunal in the Forum, a number of the 
people thus habited, cried out in indignation : "En 

Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatam," 

and gave orders to the sediles henceforth not to admit any one without 
a toga mto the Forum or Circus. Suet. Oct. 40. 
t Dion, lii. 27. 



36 AUGUSTUS. 

fore give it as my opinion that all the rest should live with- 
out arms or camps, while the most able-bodied and neces- 
sitous should be selected and disciplined ; for these will 
fight the better, having nothing else to occupy them ; and 
the others can devote themselves more entirely to agricul- 
ture, navigation, and the other arts of peace, not being called 
on to serve personally, and having others to protect them ; 
and that portion of the population which is the strongest and 
most vigorous, and the most likely to live by robbery, will 
be supported at its ease, and all the rest will live free from 
danger." ^ 

It was therefore determined that the legions should be 
immortal, i. e. that the army should henceforth be a stand- 
ing one. The legions were to be twenty-five in number, 
which we find thus stationed at the time of Augustus's 
death:* — On the Rhenish frontier eight ; in Spain three; 
in Africa one; in Egypt two; in Syria four; in Pannonia 
three ; in Moesia two, and two more in Dalmatia for the 
protection of Italy. Attached to each of these divisions 
was a body of troops termed auxiliaries, furnished by the 
different states subject to, or in alliance with the empire ; 
and, as in the old days of the republic, their number nearly 
equalled that of the legions. f The legion at this time con- 
tained 6100 infantry and 726 horse ; the twenty-five legions, 
therefore, mustered, when complete, 170,000 men; to which 
adding as many more for the auxiliaries, we have a sum total 
of 340,000 men. These, however, did not form the whole 
military force of the empire ; there was a body of 10,000 
guards, divided into nine cohorts, named Prsetorian, and 
three Urban cohorts, containing 6000 men.i; These two 
last bodies were always recruited in Etruria, Umbria, La- 
tium, and the ancient Roman colonies. They had double 
pay, and their period of service was shorter than that of the 
legionaries. Augustus allowed only three of the cohorts to 
remain in the city; the rest were distributed through the 
towns in the vicinity.^ There were two commanders of the 

* Dion, Iv. 23. Tac. Ann. iv. 5. It is for the ninth year of Tiberius 
that this last furnishes us with the distribution of the legions given 
in the text; but there had been no alteration of any account since the 
time of Augustus. 

t " Neque n,,ulto secus in lis virium." Tac. Ann. iv. 5. 

% Tac. ut supra. Dion (Iv. 24) says 10 Prsetorian and 4 Urban co- 
horts. 

§ Suet. Oct. 49 ; the three would seem to be the Urban cohorts, thus 
confirming the numbers given by Tacitus. 



THE ARMY. 37 

Praetorian guards named prefects; they were always to be 
taken from the equestrian order. At Ravenna in the Up- 
per, and Misenum in the Lower Sea, were stationed fleets- 
of galleys, with their due complement of rowers, and each; 
with its legion of marines attached to it; there also lay 
at Forum Julii, (Frejus,) on the coast of Gaul, a fleet 
composed of the ships taken at Actium.* 

The pay of the legionary soldier was ten asses a day; 
that of the praetorian was double ; the former had to serve 
twenty, the latter sixteen years before he could claim his 
discharge. The former then received a gratuity of 3000, 
the latter of 5000 denars, answering to the pension of mod- 
ern times. 

The pay and rewards of so large an army, the salaries of 
the numerous public officers, and the other indispensable 
expenses of government, required a considerable revenue. 
From the time when ^Emilius Paulus broucrht the treasures 
of Perseus to Rome, the citizens had been free from the 
payment of the annual tributes or direct taxes hitherto lev- 
ied, and so often, in the early days of the republic, the cause 
of seditions. An annual tribute was imposed on every con- 
quered state; and as the tide of conquest rolled eastwards 
and westwards, a larger amount of revenue flowed annually 
to Rome. In the time of Augustus, the annual tributes of 
Asia, Egypt, Africa, Spain, and Gaul, produced a sum which 
has been estimated at from fifteen to twenty millions ster- 
ling.t Yet even this large revenue did not suffice for the 
exigencies of the state, and Augustus found it necessary 
not merely to continue the port duties, {portoria,) or customs 
which had been imposed by the dictator, but to establish an 
excise, and to lay on some direct taxes. 

In all commercial states, at all ages of the world, duties 
have been levied on imported foreign commodities; they 
originated, probably, in the mistaken idea, that it was on the 
foreign merchant, and not on the domestic consumer, that 
they fell. They were levied at Rome as elsewhere till the 

* Tac. Ann. iv. 5. Suet. Oct. 49. Vegetius, v. 1. 

t Gibbon, i. ch. vi. [This sum is just equal to the annual ex- 
penditure of the British government at present, though the British 
dominions are far more extensive than those of Rome in her most 
powerful days, and though that expenditure is commonly, and not 
unjustly, considered to be on a very lavish scale. How wasteful, then, 
must have been the expenditure of Rome, for which even this sum did 
not suffice! — J. T. S.] 

CONTIN. 4 



BS AUGUSTUS.- 

end of the Mithridatic war, when they were abolished ; but 
Julius Ceesar caused them to be again collected,* They 
were levied ad valorem by Augustus, and varied from twelve 
and a half to two and a half per cent. ; articles of luxury, 
such as the precious stones, silks, and spices, of the Easty 
being, of course, the most highly taxed. The excise was 
imposed by Augustus chiefly with the view of providing a 
fund for the payment of the troops ; it was a duty of one per 
cent, (centesima) levied on all articles, great and small, sold 
in the markets or by auction at Rome or throughout Italy. 
This not proving sufficient, he imposed (759) a duty of five 
per cent, on all legacies and inheritances, except in the case 
of the poor, or of very near relations.! This equitable tax, 
however, proving very odious to the legacy-hunting nobility 
of Rome, in order to stop their murmurSj he sent (766) to 
the senate, requesting them to suggest some less onerous 
imposition to the same amount; and when they could not, 
yet declared that they would pay any thing rather than it, he 
substituted a property tax, and sent out officers to make an 
estimate of the property in lands, houses, etc., throughout 
Italy. This brought them to reason, and there was no fur- 
ther opposition to the legacy duty.| 

The treasury of the prince, whence the pay of the army 
was to issue, was named the Fisc, {Fiscus,) and was distinct 
from the public treasury, {yErarium,) and managed by dif- 
ferent officers ; but the distinction was more apparent than 
real, as both were equally at the devotion of the master of 
the legions. 

Such was the form of the Roman empire, as reduced into 
order, and regulated by the wisdom and prudence of Augus- 
tus. While the civilized world thus formed one body, ruled 
by one mind, it pleased the Ruler of the universe to send 
his Son into it, as the teacher of a religion unrivalled in 
sublimity, purity, and beneficence, and which was gradually 
to spread to the remotest ends of the earth. In the year of 
Rome 752 by the Catonian, 754 by the Varronian computa- 
tion, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judsea.^ 

* Cic. Alt. ii, 16. Dion, xxxvii. 51. Suet. Jul. 43. 
t Dion, Iv. 25. t Dion, Ivi. 28. 

§ We shall henceforth reckon by the Christian era. 



A. D. 14.] FUNERAL OF AUGUSTUS. 39 

CHAPTER III.* 

TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS NERO CiESAR. 

A. u. 767—790. A. D. 14—37. 

FUNERAL OF AUGUSTUS. MUTINY OF THE LEGIONS. VICTO- 
RIES OF GERMANICUS. - — HIS DEATH. CIVIL GOVERNMENT 

OF TIBERIUS. RISE AND FALL OF SEJANUS. DEATH OF 

AGRIPPINA AND HER CHILDREN. DEATH OF TIBERIUS. 

The death of Augustus was kept secret by Livia and 
Tiberius till the danger of a disputed succession should be 
removed by the death of Agrippa Posthumus. Orders in the 
name of Augustus were therefore sent to the officer who had 
him in charge, to put him to death. The orders were forth- 
with executed ; but when the centurion, who was the agent, 
made his report to Tiberius, according to the usual custom, 
the latter made answer that he had not ordered it, and that 
the centurion must account to the senate for it. The mat- 
ter,' however, ended there, for no inquiry was ever instituted. 

When the death of Augustus was at length made known 
at Rome, the senate, the knights, the army, and the people, 
hastened to swear obedience to Tiberius, who had already 
assumed the command of the army as Imperator. The body 
of Augustus was conveyed by night from town to town by 
the decurions or councilmen of each. At Bovillae it was 
met by the Roman knights, who carried it into the city, and 
deposited it in the vestibule of his house on the Palatine. 
Tiberius, by virtue of his tribunitian authority, convoked 
the senate to consult about the funeral and the honors to be 
decreed to the deceased. These, had the real or pretended 
wishes of the senate prevailed, would have been excessive; 
but Tiberius set a limit to their adulation, and only con- 
sented that the senators should carry the body to the pyre. 
The will of Augustus, which was in the custody of the Ves- 
tals, was then produced and read. The funeral orations 
were pronounced by Tiberius himself and his son Drusus. 
The body was borne on the shoulders of the senate to the 
Campus Martius, and there burnt ; the ashes were collected 

* Authorities : Tacitus^ Suetonius, and Dion. 



40 TIBERIUS. [a. D. 14. 

by the principal men of the equestrian order, and deposited 
in the Mausoleum, which he had built in his sixth consulate, 
(728,) between the Flaminian road and the Tiber, and sur- 
rounded with plantations and public walks. An eagle had 
been let to ascend from the flaming pyre, as the bearer of 
the soul of the deceased to heaven ; and Numinius Atticus, 
a man of pra3torian rank, swore publicly that he saw Augus- 
tus mounting to the skies ; for which falsehood Livia gratified 
him with a gift of 25,000 denars. A Heroum was therefore 
decreed to be raised to Augustus, as to one who had not 
shared the fate of ordinary mortals, but, like Hercules or 
Romulus, was become a god. 

By his last will, Augustus had made Tiberius and Livia 
(whom he had placed in the Julian family, and named Au- 
gusta) his heirs, the former of two thirds, the latter of one 
third, of the property which would remain after payment of 
the numerous legacies which he left. He bequeathed a sum 
of 43,500,000 sesterces to the Roman people; to the Prae- 
torians 1000 sesterces each ; half that sum to each of the 
Urbans, and 300 to each of the legionaries. He also be- 
queathed various sums to his friends. He expressly forbade 
either of the Julias to be laid in his monument when they 
died. Beside his will, Augustus left three pieces in writing, 
the one containing the directions about his funeral, another 
an account of his actions, which he directed to be cut on 
brazen tables, and set up before his Mausoleum, and a third 
giving a view of the condition of the whole empire, the 
number of soldiers under arms, the quantity of money in the 
treasury and fisc, or elsewhere, adding the names of the freed- 
men and slaves who raio-ht be called on to account for it. 

The man into whose hands the supreme power was now 
transferred, was in character diametrically opposite to Au- 
gustus. Tiberius Claudius Nero, who was by adoption a 
member of the Julian house, was nearly fifty-four years of 
age. He had exercised all the principal offices in the state, 
and had commanded armies with reputation. He was fond 
of literature and science, and of the society of learned men ; 
but he had all the innate haughtiness of the Claudian family; 
he was suspected of an inclination to cruelty ; yet so profound 
was his power of dissimulation, that he had attained to that 
mature age without his character being generally understood.* 

* In his first campaigns, the soldiers, noticing his love of wine, called 
him Biberius Caldius Mero. Suet. Tib. 42. 



A. D. 14.] MUTINY OF THE LEGIONS. 41 

His manners and carriage were repulsive and forbidding ; 
he was generally silent, and did not unbend and decline into 
familiarity. 

When all due honors had been decreed to Augustus, the 
senate turned to Tiberius, imploring him to assume the su- 
preme power ; but he feigned reluctance, spoke of the diffi- 
culty of the task, and his own incompetence, saying that, in 
a state possessing so many illustrious men, such power should 
not be committed to any single person. This only caused 
them to urge him the more^ they called on the gods and on 
the statue of Augustus : Tiberius marked the words of each, 
and for some incautious speakers he laid up future vengeance. 
At length, yielding as it were to compulsion, he accepted the 
wretched and onerous servitude, as be termed it, until the 
senate should see fit to grant some repose to his old age. 

In this affected reluctance, Tiberius, no doubt, was act^ 
ing according to his natural character of dissimulation, and 
seeking to learn the real sentiments of the leading senators ; 
but he had other reasons and causes of apprehension. He 
was uncertain how the two great armies, which were stationed 
in Pannonia and Germany, would act when they heard of 
the death of Augustus ; and he feared lest Germanicus, who 
commanded the latter, and who was universally beloved, 
might choose to grasp the supreme power when within his 
reach, rather than wait for it to come to him by the more 
tedious course of succession. He did, however, the noble 
Germanicus injustice ; but his suspicions of the legions were 
not unfounded, for they broke out into mutiny when intelli- 
gence reached them of the late events. 

The mutiny commenced in the Pannonian army of three 
legions under the command of Junius BlaBsus. The soldiers 
complained of the smallness of their pay and the length of 
their service, and demanded to be placed on an equality in 
both these points with the Praetorians. Blaesus having suc- 
ceeded, in some measure, in calming them, they selected his 
own son as their deputy, to lay their grievances before Ti- 
berius ; but when he was gone, the mutiny broke out anew, 
and they killed one of their officers, drove the rest out of the 
camp, and plundered their baggage. When Tiberius heard 
of the mutiny, he sent off his son Drusus with a guard of the 
Praetorians, and bearing letters to the troops, in which he 
promised to lay their grievances before the senate, adding 
that Drusus was authorized to concede at once all that could 
be granted without a decree of the senate. 



42 TEBERIUS. [a. D. 14. 

The soldiers received and listened to Drusus with re- 
spect ; but when they found that he had not in fact the 
power to grant any of tlieir demands, they quitted his tribu- 
nal in anger. The greatest apprehensions were entertained 
that they would break out iuto violence during tlie night; 
but an unexpected event altered the whole course of atfliirs. 
The moon, which was shining at the full in an unclouded 
sky, was suddenly observed to grow dim. The ignorant, 
superstitious soldiers, viewing this as ominous of their own 
condition, clashed their arms and sounded their horns and 
trumpets, to relieve the labor of the goddess of the night; 
and as she still grew darker, they gave way to despair, saying 
that the gods had declared againsl them, and that their toils 
were to have no end. The otficers, who had intiuence with 
them, took advantage of this disposition, and went about all 
the night long reasoning with and persuading them. In the 
morning, Drusus again addressed them, and Bla^sus and two 
other deputies were sent to Tiberius. Meantime Drusus 
caused some of the most mutinous to be executed. A pre- 
mature winter, with violent rain and storm, increased the 
superstitious terrors of the soldiery, and the legions gradually 
returned to their obedience without even waiting for the 
answer of Tiberius. 

The mutiny which broke out at the same time in the Ger- 
man army was still more formidable. This army, consisting 
of two divisions of four legions each, was quartered in the 
Upper and Lower Germany; the former commanded by C. 
Silius, the latter by A. Coecina. The commander-in-chief 
was Germanicus, who was at this time absent, being engaged 
in taking a census of Gaul. The mutiny commenced in the 
camp of Ciecina; the complaints were the same as those of 
the Pannonian legions, but the soldiers showed themselves 
more determined and ferocious. They seized their centu- 
rions, threw them on the ground, beat them nearly to death, 
and then cast them out of the camp or into the Rhine; they 
refused all obedience to their superior officers ; they set the 
guards themselves, and performed all the necessary military 
duties. 

Germanicus hastened to the camp ; the soldiers came forth 
to meet him with all tokens of respect. He entered and 
ascended his tribunal : they stood round in their companies. 
He addressed them ; they listened in silence, while he spoke 
in praise of Augustus and Tiberius, and extolled their own 
exploits. But, when he began to touch on their late con- 



A. D. 14.] MUTINY OF THE LEGIONS. 43 

duct, they stripped their bodies, showing the scars of wounds 
and the marks of blows ; they enumerated the laborious 
tasks they had to perform; the veterans counted up the 
thirty and more campaigns that they had served. Some 
called for the money bequeathed to them by Augustus, and 
expressed their wishes for Germanicus himself to assume 
the supreme power. At these words, he sprang down from 
the tribunal ; they opposed his departure with menaces ; he 
drew his sword, and was about to plunge it into his bosom, 
but those near him caught his hand. Some of the more 
distant, however, called out to him to strike ; and one soldier 
had the audacity to offer him his sword, saying that it was 
sharper than his own. The rest were appalled at this daring 
act, and paused ; and his friends then got Germanicus into 
his tent. He there deliberated on the state of affairs; and, 
as it was known that the mutineers were about to send 
deputies to solicit the legions in Upper Germany, and that 
the Germans would probably take advantage of the mutiny 
to cross the Rhine, it was resolved to try to appease them. 
A letter was therefore written, in the name of Tiberius, 
giving a total discharge to those who had served twenty, and 
a partial one to those who had served sixteen campaigns; 
and adding, that they should receive double the sum left 
them by Augustus. As two of the legions insisted on being 
paid their money down, Germanicus and his friends had to 
supply it from their own private funds. 

Germanicus then proceeded to the army of Upper Ger- 
many, in which the spirit of mutiny had been very slight ; 
and, though the soldiers did not ask for them, he gave dis- 
charges and money as to the other army. On his return to 
the place named The Ubians' Altar, (Bonn,) where two of the 
lately mutinous legions were quartered, he met a deputation 
from the senate, headed by Munatius Plancus. The soldiers, 
conscious of guilt, began to fear that they were the bearers 
of a decree for annulling the concessions which they had 
extorted by their mutiny ; they again broke into a tumult ; 
they assailed the gate of Germanicus's dwelling in the night, 
and forced him to get up and deliver to them a standard 
which they demanded.* The deputies (especially Plancus, 
whom they fancied to have been the proposer of the ob- 
noxious decree) narrowly escaped with their lives. In the 

* Tac. Ann. i. 39. Lipsius thinks it was the red flag which used to 
be hung out over the general's tent as the signal for battle. 



44 TIBERIUS. [a. d. 14. 

morning, Germanicus remonstrated with them on their con- 
duct, but they listened in sullen silence. He then dismissed 
the deputies with an escort of horse of the allies ; and, on 
his friends representing to him the imprudence of allow- 
ing his wife and young son to remain in a place of so 
much danger, he resolved to send them to the Trevirians for 
security. 

Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, was the daughter of 
Agrippa and Julia ; she was a woman of a high spirit, de- 
votedly attached to her husband, and of unsullied chastity; 
and she was now far advanced in pregnancy. Her young 
son, Caius, had been reared in the camp, and been given by 
the soldiers the name of Caligula, from his being made to 
wear the military shoes, which were so called. When, there- 
fore, the soldiers saw the wife and child of their general, 
accompanied by the wives of his friends, all weeping and 
lamenting, about to quit a Roman camp in order to seek the 
protection of provincials, they were filled with grief and 
shame, and more especially with envy of the Trevirians. 
Some stopped them, and insisted on their remaining, while 
others crowded round Germanicus, who now rebuked them 
severely for their conduct. They acknowledged their fault, 
besought him to punish the guilty, to forgive the misguided, 
to lead them against the enemy, but to bring back his wife 
and child, and not deliver the nursling of the legions as a 
hostage to Gauls. He consented to the return of his son, 
but excused that of his wife, on account of her pregnancy 
and the approach of the winter. The soldiers were con- 
tented : they forthwith seized the ringleaders of the mutiny, 
and dragged them, bound, before C. Cetronius, the legate of 
the first legion. They then stood with their swords drawn : 
each of the prisoners was placed on a bank of earth before 
the tribunal : if the soldiers cried out, *' Guilty," he was 
thrown down, and they despatched him. Germanicus finally 
made an inquiry into the conduct of the centurions, and 
dismissed the service all who were proved guilty of avarice 
or cruelty. 

Order being thus restored in these two legions, Germanicus 
made preparations for conducting a body of the allies against 
the other two legions, who had begun the mutiny, and were 
now lying at the Old Camp, (Vetera Castra 'Santen.') He 
wrote, however, previously, to Caecina, to say that, if not 
prevented by the punishment of the guilty, he would come 
and make a promiscuous slaughter. Caecina secretly com- 



A. D. 15.] GERMANICUS. 45 

municated this letter to the officers and the sound part of the 
army, and it was resolved to fall unawares on the mutineers, 
and slaughter them. The plan was carried into effect, and 
numbers were thus butchered. Germanicus, on coming to 
the camp, shed copious tears, calling it a massacre, and not 
a medicine, and ordered the bodies of the slain to be burnt. 
The soldiers clamored to be led against the enemy, in order, 
by receiving honorable wounds, to appease the Manes of 
their comrades. A bridge was hastily thrown over the river, 
and they advanced some way into Germany, where, falling 
on the unsuspecting barbarians on the night of one of their 
solemn festivals, they slaughtered all ages and sexes promis- 
cuously ; they laid the country waste for a space of fifty 
miles, levelling all edifices, sacred and profane, alike. Ger- 
raanicus then led them back to winter quarters. 

Tiberius received the account of the suppression of the 
mutiny with mingled feelings. He rejoiced that it was at an 
end, while he was uneasy at the popularity which Germanicus 
must have acquired by his able and vigorous conduct. He, 
however, praised him to the senate; but it was observed that 
his praises of Drusus, at the same time, though more brief, 
were more sincere. He gave the Pannonian legions all the 
advantages which Germanicus had granted to the German 
army. 

Early in the spring, (15,) Germanicus led his whole army 
over the Rhine, and invaded the country of the Chattans, 
where he wasted the land and slaughtered the inhabitants in 
the usual manner. Segestes, the Chattan prince, who, as we 
have seen, through enmity to Arminius, was in favor of the 
Romans, having sent to apprize Germanicus that he was sur- 
rounded by his hostile countrymen, who were under the in- 
fluence of Arminius, the Roman army was instantly marched 
to his relief, and he and his family, (among whom was his 
daughter, the wife of Arminius,) and a large body of his 
clients, were received under the protection of the Romans, 
and given a settlement on the left bank of the Rhine. 

Germanicus led back his army ; but Arminius, maddened 
at the captivity of his wife, went from place to place, rousing 
the Cheruscans and the conterminous tribes to arms against 
the Romans. He was joined by his uncle, Inguiomer, a man 
whose talents the Romans held in the highest respect; and 
Germanicus, therefore, judging that the war would be very 
serious, resolved to prevent, if possible, the whole weight of 
it from falling on one place. With this view, he despatched 



46 TIBERIUS. [a. d. 15. 

Csecina, with forty cohorts, through the Bructerian country, 
to the River Ems, ^Amisia,) while the prefect Pedo led the 
cavalry through the country of the Frisians ; and he himself, 
putting four legions on shipboard, sailed through the lakes. 
The whole force rendezvoused on the Ems, and all the coun- 
try between it and the Lippe was laid waste. 

As the Teutoburg forest, in which Varus and his legions 
had been slaughtered, was at hand, Germanicus resolved to 
proceed thither, and render the last honors to the slain. On 
arriving at the fatal spot, the Romans found the camp of 
Varus bearing evidence of the fate of the army : around lay 
whitening the bones of men and horses; broken weapons 
strewed the ground ; human heads were fixed on trunks of 
trees ; the altars, at which the officers had been sacrificed, 
stood in the adjoining woods. The soldiers mournfully col- 
lected the bones of their comrades, and raised a mound over 
them, Germanicus himself laying the first sod. The jealousy 
of Tiberius was offended at this popular act, which, he said, 
tended to damp the spirit of the soldiers. 

The Romans, on their return to the Ems, were fallen on, in 
their march through the woods and marshes, by Arminius, and 
narrowly escaped a defeat. Germanicus then reembarked 
his legions, sending the cavalry, as before, round the coast. 
He charged Caecina to make all the speed he could to get 
beyond the Long Bridges, as a causeway was named which 
the Romans had some years before constructed in the exten- 
sive marshes which lay not far from the Ems. Caecina ac- 
cordingly advanced with rapidity, but the speed of Arminius 
exceeded his ; and, on arriving at the Bridges, he found the 
woods all occupied by the Germans. He also, to his mor- 
tification, saw that the causeway had become so decayed with 
time, that it must be repaired before the army could pass it; 
he therefore resolved to encamp on the spot. 

The Germans assailed the Romans as they were engaged 
in forming their camp, and the legions were saved from de- 
struction only by the intervention of night. As there was 
now little chance of their being able to pass by the Bridges, 
Csecina saw that his only course was to- endeavor to force 
his way through a narrow plain, which lay between the 
marshes and the hills occupied by the enemy. After passing 
a miserable night, the army set out at dawn ; but the two le- 
gions, which were appointed to Cover the flank of the line of 
march, disobeyed orders, and pushed on for the dry ground; 
and Arminius, waiting till he saw the Romans completely en- 



A. D. 16.] VICTORIES OF GERMANICUS. 47 

gaged in the marshes, charged the unprotected line, and broke 
it. The horses were the chief object of attack : and, pierced 
by the lo.ng spears of the Germans, they fell, and flung their 
riders, or, rushing on, trampled on those before them ; Cceci- 
na's own horse was killed under him, and he was near being 
taken by the enemy. Fortunately for the Romans, the bar- 
barians, in their usual manner, fell to plundering, and, at the 
approach of evening, they succeeded in reaching the dry 
ground. Here they were obliged to encamp, but most of 
their implements were lost; they were without tents, they 
had no dressings for their wounded, and their provisions 
were all spoiled ; they, however, succeeded in securing them- 
selves for the night. 

A horse having got loose in the night, the soldiers fancied 
that the Germans had broken into the camp ; and they were 
preparing to fly for their lives, when Caecina, having ascer- 
tained that the alarm was groundless, called them together, 
and showed them that their only chance of safety was to re- 
main within their ramparts till the enemy should assail them, 
and then to break out and push on for the Rhine. The 
horses, not excepting his own, were then given to the bravest 
men, who were to be the first to charge the enemy. The 
Germans, on their part, were also deliberating how to pro- 
ceed ; Arminius was for letting the Romans quit their camp 
unmolested, and assailing, as before, their line of march ; 
but Inguiomer insisted on storming the ramparts, as there 
would then be more captives made, and the plunder would 
be in better condition. His opinion prevailed, and a general 
assault was made at daybreak. But, while the Germans 
were scaling the ramparts, the signal was given to the co- 
horts, the trumpets sounded, and the assailants found them- 
selves attacked in the rear. They made but a feeble resist- 
ance; they were slaughtered in heaps all through the day 
by the legionaries, who next morning pursued their march 
unmolested for the Rhine. 

Germanicus resolved to conduct the next campaign (16) 
on different principles from the preceding ones. He had 
observed that, in consequence of the nature of the country, 
abounding in forests and morasses, the loss of men and horses 
in an invasion of Germany was immense ; whereas, if the in- 
fantry were conveyed thither by sea, and the horse led round 
the coast, the campaign might be begun earlier, and the 
troops be exposed to less toil and danger. He therefore 
caused a multitude of vessels of all descriptions to be built 



48 TIBERIUS. [a. d. 16. 

in various places, and appointed the isle of the Batavians as 
the place of rendezvous and embarkation. When all was 
ready, he put the Roman army of eight legions and their at- 
tendant auxiliaries on board of a fleet of about 1000 vessels, 
of all forms and sizes, and, sailing up the Rhine, through the 
lake, and along the coast of the ocean, entered the mouth of 
the Ems, where having landed his troops, he advanced to the 
Weser. On reaching that river, he found its opposite bank 
occupied by Arminius and the Cheruscan warriors. He, 
however, forced the passage, and, the Germans having given 
him battle in a plain encompassed by hills on one side, on 
the other by the river, they were routed with great slaughter, 
the ground for a space of ten miles being covered with their 
arms and bodies. Undismayed by their reverses, they fell 
once more on the Romans, as they were marching through a 
narrow, marshy plain, hemmed in by woods and the river ; 
but success was once more on the side of discipline and supe- 
rior arms, and Germanicus, in the inscription which he put on 
a pile of the armor of the vanquished Germans, could boast 
of having conquered all the nations between the Rhine and 
the Elbe. As the summer was now far advanced, he sent a 
part of his army to their winter quarters by land ; he himself 
embarked with the remainder in the Ems ; but, when they got 
into the open sea, they were assailed by a furious tempest ; 
some of the vessels were driven on the German coast, others 
on the adjacent islands, others even to Britain ; and the loss 
of horses and baao-ao-e was immense. When the storm was 
over, the ships which had escaped were repaired without de- 
lay, and sent to search the islands, and bring off the men 
who had been cast away on them. 

Germanicus and his officers were decidedly of opinion 
that one campaign more would end the war, and complete 
the subjugation of Germany ; but the jealousy of Tiberius 
would not let him permit Germanicus to remain longer at 
the head of so large an army; and he urged him to return to 
Rome to celebrate the triumph which had been decreed 
him, offering him, as an inducement, a second consulate. 
Germanicus, though he saw through his motives, yielded 
obedience to his wishes ; and thus finally terminated the 
projects of the Romans for conquest in northern Germany.* 

* The gallant Arminius afterwards engaged in war with and defeat- 
ed Maroboduus. He finally perished by the treachery of his relations, 
being charged with aiming at royalty. Tacitus (ii. 88) gives him the 
following encomium : " Liberator hand dubie Germaniae, et qui non 



A. D. 17-19.] DEATH OF GERMANICUS. 49 

On his return to Rome, (17,) Germanicus celebrated his 
triumph over the Chattans, Cheruscans, and Angivarians, 
Tiberius gave in his name a donation to the people of 300 
sesterces a man, and nominated him his colleao;ue in the 
consulate for the ensuing year. As, about this time, the 
kings of Cappadocia, Commagene, and Cilicia, were dead, 
and the affairs of Armenia were in their usual disorder, and 
Syria and Judaea were applying for a diminution of their 
burdens, Tiberius, who did not wish to let Germanicus re- 
main at Rome, or who, as some suspected, had designs on 
him which could best be accomplished at a distance, took 
advantage of this occasion for removing him ; by a decree 
of the senate, he was therefore assigned the provinces beyond 
the sea, with an authority, when in any of them, paramount 
to that of its actual governor. Tiberius at the same time 
removed Silanus, the governor of Syria, whose daughter 
was affianced to Germanicus's son, and appointed in his 
place Cn. Piso, a man of a fierce and violent temper, and 
whose wife, Plancina, a haughty and arrogant woman, was 
the intimate friend of Livia. It was suspected that they 
were selected as fit agents for the execution of some secret 
design against Germanicus. 

After visiting his brother Drusus, who held the command 
in Illyricum, and with whom he was always on the most 
cordial terms, Germanicus proceeded to Greece, (18,) whence 
he passed over to Asia, where he invested Zeno, son of the 
king of Pontus, with the diadem, and reduced Commagene 
and Cappadocia to the form of provinces. He thence (19) 
proceeded to Egypt, urged chiefly by the laudable curiosity 
of viewing the wonders of that land of mystery. On his 
return to Syria, he fell sick, and it was suspected that the 
cause of his disease was poison, privily administered by 
Piso and Plancina, with whom he was now at open enmity : 
Germanicus himself was of this opinion, and he therefore 
sent Piso orders to quit the province. The disease, however, 
proved fatal, and he died shortly after, with his last breath 
charging his friends to appeal to his father, brother, and the 
senate, for punishment on Piso and Plancina, as the author^ 
of his death. 

primordia Pop. Rom. sicut alii reges ducesque, sed florentissimum im- 
perium lacessierit ; praeliis ambiguus, bello non victus; xxxvii. annos 
vitae, xii. potentiEe explevit; canitur adhuc barbaras apud gentes ; 
Grsecorum annalibus ignotus, qui suatantum mirantur ; Romanis baud 
perinde Celebris, dum vetera extoUimus recentium incuriosi." 
CONTIN. 5 G 



50 TIBERIUS. . [a. d. 20. 

Such was the end of the noble Germanicus, in the thirty- 
fourth year of his age. Unlike the Claudian family, from 
which he sprang, he was mild, affable, and clement in tem- 
per. Not content with military glory, he sought fame also 
in the peaceful fields of literature.* He was a faithful 
husband, an affectionate parent, a constant friend ; in fine, 
both in public and private virtues, he has few superiors in 
the pages of history. 

After the death of Germanicus, a consultation was held, by 
such of the senators as were present, on the subject of the 
government of the province of Syria, now vacant, and it was 
resolved to commit it to Cn. Sentius. Meantime Piso, who 
was at Cos when the news of the death of Germanicus 
reached him, consulted as to what he should do. His son 
urged him to pursue his journey to Rome without a mo- 
ment's delay ; but one of his friends, Domitius Celer, advised 
him to return to Syria, and wrest the government of it from 
Sentius. Piso adopted this last course ; but, failing in his 
attempts to seduce the legions, he was besieged by Sentius in 
a castle on the coast of Cilicia, and surrendered on con- 
dition of being allowed to proceed to Rome. 

Agrippina had already (20) reached the city with the urn 
which contained the ashes of her illustrious husband. The 
mourning of the people was universal and sincere ; but the 
honors of the dead were limited by the jealousy of Tiberius. 
When Drusus, after the funeral, returned to Dalmatia, he 
was visited by Piso, who hoped to gain his protection ; but, 
failing in his object, he had to proceed to Rome, where the 
friends of Germanicus made no delay in exhibiting articles 
of accusation against him. The cause was referred by Ti- 
berius to the senate. All the charges but that of poisoning 
were proved ; and Piso, seeing Tiberius, the senate, and the 
people, equally hostile to him, sought a refuge from ignominy 
in a voluntary death. Plancina was acquitted through the 
influence of Augusta, at whose desire Tiberius himself be- 
came her intercessor. 

Before we proceed to notice the internal affairs of the 
empire during the early part of the reign of Tiberius, we 
will mention briefly the slight military movements on the 
frontiers. 

In Africa a Numidian named Tacfarinas, who had served 
in the Roman army, and had then become a freebooter, and 

* The Fasti of Ovid are dedicated to this prince. 



A.. D. 21.] MILITARY MOVEMENTS. 51 

gradually collected a good body of men, being joined by 
a Moorish chief named Mazippa, began to lay waste and 
plunder the province, (17.) The proconsul Furius Camillus 
led the Roman troops out against them; Tacfarinas had the 
courage to give liim battle, but his Numidians were easily 
routed; the triumphal insignia were decreed to Camillus, 
who, as the historian observes, was the first of his family, 
since the time of the great Camillus and his son, who had 
acquired military glory. Tacfarinas continued to harass the 
province by his incursions for some years ; at length (24) he 
was defeated and slain by the proconsul P. Dolabella. 

The trifling commotions which took place in Thrace, and 
were easily repressed, are not deserving of particular notice; 
but an insurrection which broke out in Gaul (21) threatened 
to be of serious consequence. The origin of it was the 
heavy weight of debt caused by the excessive amount of the 
tributes, to meet which the states were obliged to borrow 
money from the wealthy men at Rome on enormous interest ; 
to which were added the pride and severity of the Roman 
governors. The heads of the revolt were Julius Florus, a 
Trevirian, and Julius Sacrovir, an JEduan, both men of 
great influence, and whose ancestors had been honored with 
the Roman right of citizenship. The people of Anjou and 
Touraine were the first to rise, but they were easily put 
down; Sacrovir, who had not yet declared himself, fighting 
on the occasion in the Roman ranks. Florus, with his Tre- 
virians, occupied the forest of Ardenne, {Arduenna ;) but 
his unorganized rabble was easily dispersed by a party under 
Julius Indus, another Trevirian, who was at enmity with 
him ; and he slew himself to escape captivity, Sacrovir 
meantime seized on Autun, {Augustodunu7n,) the capital 
of the ^Eduans, where most of the young nobility of Gaul 
were placed for the purpose of education, in order that he 
might thus draw their parents and relations in to share in the 
war. He collected 40,000 men, only a fifth of whom were 
completely armed : with these he gave battle to the Roman, 
legions ; and, being defeated, he fled with a few companions 
to a country-house near Autun, where he put an end to 
himself. The Gallic war was thus terminated, and the em- 
pire remained at peace during the remainder of the reign of 
Tiberius. 

It is now time that we should trace the conduct of this 
wily prince during the period of which we have related the 
military transactions. 



52 TIBERIUS. [a. D. 21. 

All the historians are agreed that he both disliked and 
feared Germanicus, and that it was the awe in which he 
stood of that favorite of the soldiery and the people that 
caused him to act with so much moderation in his first years, 
in which there is really little to reprehend. 

His plan was to possess the reality of power without ex- 
citing hatred or envy by the useless display of the show of 
it. He therefore rejected the titles that were offered him, 
such as that of Imperator, as a prcsnomen, and that of Father 
of his Country ; even that of Augustus, though hereditary, 
he would only use in his letters to kings and dynasts : above 
all, he rejected that of Master, [Dominus ;) he would only be 
called Cgesar, or First of the Senate. This last (which we 
shall henceforth term Prince) was his favorite title : he used 
to say, *' I am the Master of my slaves, the Imperator of the 
soldiers, and the Prince of the rest." He would not allow 
any thing peculiar to be done in honor of his birthday, nor 
suffer any one to swear by his fortune ; neither would he 
permit the senate to swear to his acts on new year's day, or 
temples, or any other divine honors, to be decreed him. He 
was affable and easy of approach; he took no notice of libels 
and evil reports of which he was the object, while he re- 
pelled flattery of every kind. 

To the senate and the magistrates he preserved (at least 
in appearance) all their pristine dignity and power. Every 
matter, great or small, public or private, was laid before the 
senate. The debates were apparently free, and the prince 
was often in the minority. He always entered the senate- 
house without any attendants, like an ordinary senator ; he 
reproved consulars in the command of armies for writing to 
him instead of the senate ; he treated the consuls with the 
utmost respect, rising to them and making way for them. 
Ambassadors and deputies were directed to apply to them, as 
in the time of the republic. It was only by his tribunitian 
right of interceding that he exercised his power in the sen- 
ate. He used also to take his seat with the magistrates as 
they were administering justice, and by his presence and 
authority gave a check to the influence of the great in pro- 
tecting the accused ; by which conduct of his, while justice 
gained, liberty, it was observed, suffered.* 

The public morals and the tranquillity of the city were 

* " Sed dum veritati consulitur libertas corrumpebatur." Tac. 
Ann. i. 75. 



A.. D. 21.] CONDUCT OF TIBEBIUS. 53 

also attended to. A limit was set to the expenses of plays and 
public shows, and to the salaries of the players, to whom the 
senators and knights were forbidden to show marks of respect, 
by visiting them or attending them in public. Profligacy had 
become so bold and shameless, that ladies were known to 
have entered themselves in the list of professed courtesans in 
order to escape the penalties of the law, and young men of 
family to have voluntarily submitted to the mark of infamy 
in order to appear with safety on tne stage or the arena; 
both these infamous classes were now subjected to the pen- 
alty of exile. Astrologers and fortune-tellers were expelled 
the city ; the rites and ceremonies of the Egyptian and 
Judaic religions were suppressed. Guards were placed 
throughout Italy to prevent highway robbery ; and those 
refuges of villany of all kinds, the sanctuaries, were regu- 
lated in Greece and Asia. 

Yet people were not deceived by all this apparent regard 
for liberty and justice ; for they saw, as they thought, from 
the very commencement, the germs of tyranny, especially in 
the renewal of the law of treason, {majestas.) In the time 
of the republic, there was a law under this name, by which 
any one who had diminished the greatness (majestas) of the 
Roman people by betraying an army, exciting the plebs to 
sedition, or acting wrong in command, was subject to pun- 
ishment. It applied to actions alone ; but Sulla extended it 
to speeches,* and Augustus to writings against not merely 
the state, but private individuals, on the occasion of Cassius 
Severus having libelled several illustrious persons of both 
sexes. Tiberius, who was angered by anonymous verses 
made on himself, directed the praetor, when consulted by 
him on the subject, to give judgment on the law of treason. 
As this law extended to words as well as actions, it opened 
a wide field for mischief, and gave birth to the vile brood of 
Delators, or public informers, answering to the sycophants, 
those pests of Athens in the days of her democratic despot- 
ism. This evil commenced almost with the reign of Ti- 
berius, in whose second year two knights, Falonius and 
Rubrius, were accused, the one of associating a player of 
infamous character with the worshippers of Augustus, and 
of having sold with his gardens a statue of that prince, the 
other of having sworn falsely by his divinity. Tiberius, 
however, would not allow these absurd charges to be en- 

* Cic. ad Fam. iii. 11. 



54 TIBERIUS. [a. d. 22. 

tertained. Soon after, Granius Marcellus, the praetor of 
Bithynia, was charged with treason by his quaestor, Caepio 
Crispinus, for having spoken evil of Tiberius, having placed 
his own statue on a higher site than that of the Caesars, and 
having cut the head of Augustus off a statue, to make room 
for that of Tiberius. This last charge exasperated Tiberius, 
who declared that he would vote himself on the matter; but 
a bold expression used by Cn. Piso brought him to reason, 
and Marcellus was acquitted. 

After the death of Germanicus, Tiberius acted with less 
restraint ; for his son Drusus did not possess the qualities 
suited to gain popularity, and thus to control him. In fact, 
except his affection for his noble adoptive brother, there was 
nothing in the character of Drusus to esteem. He was 
addicted to intemperance, devoted to the sports of the am- 
phitheatre, and of so cruel a temper, that a peculiarly sharp 
kind of swords were named from him Drusians. Tiberius 
made him his colleague in the consulate,* and then obtained 
for him the tribunitian power, (22;) but Drusus was fated 
to no long enjoyment of the dignity and power thus con- 
ferred on him. A fatal change was also to take place in the 
conduct and government of Tiberius himself, of which we 
must how trace the origin. 

Seius Strabo, who had been made one of the praefects of 
the preetorian cohorts by Augustus, had a son, who, having 
been adopted by one of the ^lian family, was named, in the 
usual manner, L. JElius Sejanus. This young man, who 
was born at Vulsinii in Tuscany, was at first attached to 
the service of Caius Caesar, after whose death he devoted 
himself to Tiberius; and such was his consummate art, that 
this wily prince, dark and mysterious to all others, was open 
and unreserved to him. Sejanus equalled his master in the 
power of concealing his thoughts and designs ; he was daring 
and ambitious, and he possessed the requisite qualities for 
attaining the eminence to which he aspired; for, though 
proud, he could play the flatterer; he could, and did, assume 
a modest exterior, and he had vigilance and industry, and a 
body capable of enduring any fatigue. 

When Drusus was sent to quell the mutiny of the Panno- 
nian legions, Sejanus, whom Tiberius had made colleague 

* Dion (Ivii. 20) says that people forthwith prophesied the ruin of 
Drusus ; for it was observed that every one who had been Tiberius's 
colleague in the consulate came to a violent end, as Quinctilius Varus, 
Cn. Piso, Germanicus, and afterwards Drusus aud Sejanus. 



A. D. 23.] RISE OF SEJANUS. 55 

with his father, Strabo, in the command of the praBtorians, 
accompanied him as his governor and director. Strabo was 
afterwards sent out to Egypt, and Sejanus was continued in 
the sole command of the guards; he then represented to 
Tiberius how much better it would be to have them col- 
lected into one camp, instead of being dispersed through the 
city and towns, as they would be less liable to be corrupted, 
would be more orderly, and of greater efficiency if any in- 
surrection should occur. A fortified camp was therefore 
formed for them near the Viminal gate ; and Sejanus then 
began to court the men, and he appointed those on whom 
he could rely to be tribunes and centurions. While thus 
securing the guards, he was equally assiduous to gain parti- 
sans in the senate ; and honors and provinces only came to 
those who had acquired his favor by obsequiousness. In all 
these projects he was unwittingly aided by Tiberius, who 
used publicly to style him *' the associate of his labors; " and 
even allowed his statues to be placed and worshipped in tem- 
ples and theatres, and among the ensigns of the legions. 

Sejanus had, in fact, formed the daring project of destroy- 
ing Tiberius and his family, and seizing the supreme power. 
As, beside Tiberius and Drusus, who had two sons, there 
were a brother and three sons of Germanicus living, he re- 
solved, as the safer course, to remove them gradually by art 
and treachery. He began with Drusus, against Avhom he 
had a personal spite, as that violent youth had one time pub- 
licly given him a blow in the face. In order to effect his 
purpose, he seduced his wife, Livia, or Livilla, the sister of 
Germanicus; and then, by holding out to her the prospect 
of a share in the imperial power, he induced her to engage 
in the plan for the murder of her husband.* Her physician, 
Eudemus, was also taken into the plot; but it was some time 
before the associates could finally determine what mode to 
adopt. At length a slow poison was fixed on, which was 
administered to Drusus by a eunuch named Lygdus ; and he 
died apparently of disease, (23.) Tiberius, who, while his 
son was lying dead, had entered the senate-house, and ad- 
dressed the members with his usual composure, pronounced 
the funeral oration himself, and then turned to business for 
consolation. 

So far, all had succeeded with Sejanus, and death carried 
off the younger son of Drusus soon after his father ; but 

* "Neque femina, amissa pudicitia, alia abnuerit," observes Tacitus. 



56 TIBERIUS. [a. d. 25. 

Nero and Drusus, the two elder sons of Germanicus, were 
' now growing up ; and the chastity of their mother, and the 
fidelity of those about them, put poison out of the question. 
He therefore adopted another course ; and, taking advantage 
of the high spirit of Agrippina, and working on the jealousy 
of her which Augusta was known to entertain, he managed 
so that both she and Livia should labor to prejudice Tibe- 
rius against Agrippina by talking of the pride which she 
took in her progeny, and the ambitious designs which she 
entertained. At the same time, he induced some of those 
about her to stimulate her haughty spirit by their treacher- 
ous language. He further proposed to deprive her of sup- 
port, by destroying those persons of influence who were 
attached to her family, or the memory of her husband. 
With this view, he selected for his first victims C. Silius 
and Titius Sabinus, the friends of Germanicus, and Silius's 
wife, Sosia Galla, to whom Agrippina was strongly attached, 
and who was therefore an object of dislike to Tiberius. 
Omitting, however, Sabinus for the present, he caused the 
consul Visellius Varro to accuse Silius of treason, for having 
dissembled his knowledge of the designs of Sacrovir, having 
disgraced his victory by his avarice, and countenanced the 
acts of his wife. Having vainly asked for a delay till his 
accuser should go out of office, and seeing that Tiberius 
was determinedly hostile to him,* Silius avoided a condem- 
nation by a voluntary death. His wife was banished j a 
portion of his property was confiscated, but the remainder 
was left to his children. 

Urged by his own ambition, and by the importunity of 
Livia, Sejanus had soon (25) the boldness to present a pe- 
tition to Tiberius, praying to be chosen by him for her hus- 
band. Tiberius took no offence ; his reply was kind, only 
stating the difficulties of the matter with respect to Sejanus 
himself, but at the same time expressing the warmest friend- 
ship for and confidence in him. Sejanus, however, was 
suspicious ; and he began to reflect that, while Tiberius re- 
mained at Rome, many occasions might present themselves 
to those who desired to undermine him in the mind of that 
jealous prince; whereas, could he induce him to quit the 

* " Adversatus est Csesar, solitum quippe magistratibus diem priva- 
tis dicere ; nee infringendum consulis jas, cujus vigiliis nitiretur ne 
quod respublica detrimentuin caperet. Proprium id Tiberio fuit sce- 
lera nuper reperta priscis verbis obtegere." Tac. 



A. D. 25.] SPEECH OF CREMUTIUS. 57 

city, all access to him would be only through himself, all 
letters would be conveyed by soldiers who were under his 
orders, and gradually, as the prince advanced in years, all 
the affairs of the state would pass into his hands. He there- 
fore, by contrasting the noise and turbulence of Rome with 
the solitude and tranquillity of the country, gradually sought 
to bend him to his purpose, which he effected in the follow- 
ing year. 

During this time, the deadly charge of treason was brought 
against various persons. The most remarkable case was that 
of A. Cremutius Cordus, the historian. He had made a free 
remark on the conduct of Sejanus; and, accordingly, two of 
that favorite's clients were directed to accuse him of treason, 
for having in his history called Cassius the last of the Ro- 
mans.* Cremutius, when before the senate, observing the 
sternness of Tiberius's countenance, took at once the resolu- 
tion of abandoning life, and therefore spoke as follows : — 

*' Fathers, my words are accused, so guiltless am I of 
acts ; but not even these are against the prince or the 
prince's parent, whom the law of treason embraces. I am 
said to have praised Brutus and Cassius, whose deeds, while 
several have written, no one has mentioned without honor. 
Titus Livius, who is preeminent for eloquence and fidelity, 
extolled Pompeius with such praises, that Augustus used to 
call him a Pompeian ; nor was that any hinderance of their 
friendship. He nowhere calls Scipio, Afranius, this very 
Cassius, this Brutus, robbers and parricides, which names 
are now given them ; he often speaks of them as distin- 
guished men. The writings of Asinius Pollio transmit an 
illustrious record of them ; Messala Corvinus used to call 
Cassius his general ; and both of them flourished in wealth 
and honors. To the book of Marcus Cicero, which extolled 
Cato to the skies, what did the dictator CsBsar but reply in 
a written speech, as if before judges 1 The letters of Anto- 
nius, the speeches of Brutus, contain imputations on Augus- 
tus which are false, and written with great bitterness. The 
verses of Bibaculus and Catullus, which are full of abuse of 
the Caesars, are read; nay, the divine Julius himself, the 
divine Augustus himself, both bore with them and let them 
remain ; I cannot well say whether more through modera- 
tion or wisdom ; for what are despised go out of mind ; if 

* He probably only used the words of Brutus, who spoke thus of 
Cassius. See Hist, of Rome, p. 459. 



58 TIBERIUS. [a. d. 26. 

you are angry with them, their truth seems to be acknowl- 
edged. I speak not of the Greeks, among whom not only 
liberty but license was unpunished ; or if any one did take 
notice, he avenged himself on words by words. But there 
was the greatest freedom, and no reproach, when speaking 
of those whom death had removed from enmity or favor. 
Do I, in the cause of civil war, inflame the people by my 
harangues, while Brutus and Cassius are in arms, and occu- 
pying the plains of Philippi ? Or do they, who are now 
dead these seventy years, as they are known by their images, 
which the conqueror did not destroy, retain in like manner 
their share of memory in literary works? Posterity allots 
his meed to every one ; nor, should a condemnation fall on 
me, will there be wanting those who will remember not only 
Brutus and Cassius, but also me" 

Having thus spoken, Cordus left the senate-house, and, 
returning to his own abode, starved himself to death. The 
senate decreed that the copies of his work should be col- 
lected and burnt by the aediles ; but some were saved by his 
daughter Marcia, and were republished in the succeeding 
reign.* 

At length, (26,) Tiberius quitted Rome, and went into Cam- 
pania, under the pretext of dedicating a temple to Jupiter at 
Capua, and one to Augustus at Nola ; but with the secret 
intention of never returning to the city. Various causes, 
all perhaps true, are assigned for this resolution. The sug- 
gestions of Sejanus were not without effect; he was grown 
thin, and stooped ; he was quite bald, and his face was full 
of blotches and ulcers, to which he was obliged to have 
plasters constantly applied; and he may therefore have 
sought, on this account, to retire from the public view. It 
is further said that he wished to escape from the authority 
of his mother, who seemed to consider herself entitled to 
share the power which he had obtained through her exer- 
tions ; but perhaps the most prevalent motive was the wish 
to be able to give free course to his innate cruelty and lusts 
when in solitude and secrecy. 

He was accompanied only by one senator, Cocceius Ner- 

* See Sen. Cons, ad Marciam; Suet. Cal. 16. "Quo magis socor- 
diam [i. e. vecordiam] eorum inridere licet," observes Tacitus, "qui 
praesenti potentia credunt extingui posse etiam sequentis sevi memori- 
am ; nam contra, punitis ingeniis gliscit auctoritas ; neque aliud ex- 
tern! reges, aut qui eadem ssevitia usi sunt, nisi dedecus sibi atque illis 
gloriam peperere." 



A. D. 27.] TIBERIUS IN CAMPANIA. 59 

va, who was deeply skilled in the laws, by Sejanus and 
another knight, and by some persons, chiefly Greeks, who 
were versed in literature. A few days after he set out, an 
accident occurred, which was near being fatal to him, but 
proved fortunate for Sejanus. As, at one of his country- 
seats, near Fundi, named the Caverns, [Spcluncce,) he was, 
for the sake of the coolness, dining in one of the natural 
caverns, whence the villa derived its appellation, a great 
quantity of the stones, which formed its roof, fell down and 
crushed some of the attendants to death. Sejanus threw 
himself over Tiberius, to protect him with his own body, and 
was found in that position by the soldiers who came to their 
relief. This apparent proof of generous self-devotion raised 
him higher than ever in the estimation of the prince. 

While Tiberius was rambling from place to place in 
Campania, (27,) a dreadful calamity occurred at Fidenae, in 
consequence of the fall of a temporary amphitheatre erected 
by a freedman named Atilius, for giving a show of gladia- 
tors; the number of the killed and maimed is said to have 
been fifty thousand. The conduct of the nobility at Rome, 
on this melancholy occasion, showed that all virtue had not 
departed from them ; they threw open their houses for the 
sufferers, and supplied them with medical attendance and 
remedies; so that, as the great historian observes, the city 
wore the appearance of the Rome of the olden time, when, 
after battles, the wounded were thus humanely treated. 
This calamity was immediately followed by a tremendous 
fire on the Caelian Hill ; but Tiberius alleviated the evil, by 
giving the inhabitants the amount of their losses in money. 

Having dedicated the temples, and rambled for some time 
through the towns of Campania, Tiberius finally fixed on the 
islet of CapreoB, in the Bay of Naples, as his permanent abode. 
This isle, which lay at the short distance of three miles from 
the promontory of Surrentum, was accessible only in one 
place; it enjoyed a mild temperature, and commanded a 
most magnificent view of the Bay of Naples and the lovely 
region which encompassed it.* But the delicious retreat 
was speedily converted by the aged prince into a den of 
infamy — such as has never perhaps found its equal ; his vi- 
cious practices, however, were covered by the veil of secre- 
cy, for he still lay under some restraint. 

* Augustus was so taken with the charms of this island, that he 
gave lands in exchange for it to the people of Naples, to whom it be- 
longed. Dion, lii. 43. 



60 TIBERIUS. [a. D. 28-29. 

When Tiberius left Rome, Sejanus renewed his machina-' 
tions against Agrippina and her children and friends. He 
directed his first efforts against her eldest son, Nero, whom 
he surrounded with spies; and as this youth was married to 
a daughter of Livia's, his wife was instructed by her aban- 
doned mother to note and report all his most secret words 
and actions. Sejanus kept a faithful register of all he could 
learn in these various ways, and regularly transmitted it to 
Tiberius. He also drew to his side Nero's younger brother 
Drusus, a youth of a fiery, turbulent temper, and who hated 
him because he was his mother's favorite. It was, however, 
Sejanus's intention to destroy him also, when he should 
have served his purpose against Nero. 

At this time also he made his final and fatal attack on 
Titius Sabinus, whose crime was his attachment to the fam- 
ily of Germanicus. The bait of the consulate, of which 
Sejanus alone could dispose, induced four men of praetorian 
dignity to conspire his ruin. The plan proposed was, that 
one of them, named Latinius Latiaris, who had some knowl- 
edge of Sabinus, should draw him into conversation, out of 
which a charge of treason might be manufactured. The 
plot succeeded : Latiaris, by praising the constancy of Sabi- 
nus in friendship, led him gradually on to speak as he 
thought of Sejanus, and even of Tiberius. At length, un- 
der pretence of having something of great importance to 
reveal, he brought him into a chamber where the other 
three were concealed between the ceiling and the roof A 
charge of treason was therefore speedily concocted and for- 
warded to Tiberius, from whom a letter came on new 
year's day, (28,) plainly intimating to the senate his desire 
of vengeance. This sufficed for that obsequious body, and 
Sabinus was dragged forth and executed without delay. 

In his letter of thanks to the senate, Tiberius talked of 
the danger he was in, and of the plots of his enemies, evi- 
dently alluding to Agrippina and Nero. These unfortunate 
persons lost their only remaining refuge, the following year, 
(29,) by the death of the prince's mother, Julia Augusta,* 
whose influence over her son, and regard for her own de- 
scendants, had held Sejanus in restraint. This soon ap- 
peared by the arrival of a letter from Tiberius, accusing 

* Writers differ as to her age. Tacitus merely says extrema cetate. 
Pliny (xiv. 8) makes her 82, Dion (Iviii. 1) 86 years old. This last 
seems to be the more correct, as her son Tiberius was now 70 years 
of age. 



A. D. 31.] ARTS OF SE JANUS. 61 

Nero of unnatural practices, and speaking of the arrogance^ 
of Agrippina; but, while the senate were in debate, the- 
people surrounded the house, carrying the images of Agrip- 
pina and Nero, and crying out that the letter was forged,. 
and the prince deceived. Nothing therefore was done on 
that day, and Sejanus took the opportunity of irritating the 
mind of Tiberius, who wrote again to the senate ; but, as 
in the letter he forbade their proceeding to extremes, they 
passed a decree, declaring themselves prepared to avenge 
the prince, were they not hindered by himself 

Most unfortunately the admirable narrative of Tacitus 
fails us at this point; and for the space of more than two 
years, and those the most important of the reign of Tiberius,, 
we are obliged to derive our knowledge of events from the 
far inferior notices of Dion Cassius and Suetonius. We are 
therefore unable to display the arts by which Sejanus effected 
the ruin of Agrippina and her children, and can only learn 
that she was relegated to the isle of Pandateria, where, while 
she gave vent to her indignation, her eye was struck out by 
a centurion; and that Nero was placed in the isle of Pontia, 
and forced to terminate his own life. The further fate of 
Agrippina and Drusus we shall have to relate. 

Sejanus now revelled in the enjoyment of power; every 
one feared him, every one courted and flattered him. " In 
a word," says Dion, " he seemed to be emperor, Tiberius 
merely the ruler of an island; " for, while the latter dwelt in 
solitude, and apparently unthought of, the doors of the former 
were thronged every morning with saluting crowds, and the 
first men of Rome attended him on his way to the senate. 
His pride and insolence, as is always the case with those 
who rise otherwise than by merit, kept pace with his power, 
and men hated while they feared and flattered him. 

He had thus ruled for more than three years at Rome, 
with power nearly absolute, when (31) Tiberius made him 
his colleague in the consulate — an honor observed to be fatal 
to every one who had enjoyed it. In fact, the jealous tyrant, 
who had been fully informed of all his actions and designs,* 
had secretly resolved on his death ; but fear, on account of Se- 
janus's influence with the guards, and his uncertainty of how 
the people might stand affected, prevented him from pro- 

* According to Josephus, (Antiq. xviii. 6,) Antonia, the widow of his 
brother Drusus, wrote him a full account of Sejanus's proceedings, and 
sent it by a trusty slave named Pallas. 
CONTIN. 6 



62 TIBERIUS. [a. D. 31, 

Geeding openly against him. He therefore had recourse ta 
artifice, in which he so much delighted. At one time, he 
would write to the senate, and describe himself as so ill thai 
his recovery was nearly hopeless ; again, that he was in per-, 
feet health, and was about to return to Rome. He wouldi 
now praise Sejanus to the skies, and then speak most 
disparagingly of him ; he would honor some and disgrace 
others of his friends solely as such. In this way both Seja-. 
nus himself and all others were kept in a state of the utmost 
uncertainty. Tiberius further bestowed priesthoods on Se- 
janus and his son, and proposed to marry his daughter to 
Drusus, the son of Claudius, the brother of Germanicus; yet,^ 
at the same time, when Sejanus asked permission to go to 
Campania, on the pretext of her being unwell, he desired 
him to remain where he was, as he himself would be coming 
to Rome immediately. 

All this tended to keep Sejanus in a state of great per- 
turbation ; and this was increased by the circumstance of 
Tiberius, when appointing the young Caius to a priesthood, 
having not merely praised him, but spoken of him in som€> 
sort as his successor in the monarchy. He would have pro- 
ceeded at once to action, were it not that the joy manifested 
by the people on this occasion proved to him that he had 
only the soldiers to rely on ; and he hesitated to act with 
them alone. Tiberius then showed favor to some of those 
to whom he was hostile ; and, wheu writing to the senate on 
the occasion of the death of Nero, he merely called hinx 
Sejanus, and directed them not to offer sacrifice to any man, 
nor to decree any honors to himself, and of consequence tp 
no one else. The senators easily saw whither all this tend- 
ed ; and their neglect of Sejanus was now pretty ppeolj? 
displayed. 

Tiberius, having thus made trial of the senate and the 
people, and finding he could rely on both, resolved to strike 
the loncp-meditated blow. In order to take his victim more* 
completely at unawares, he gave out that it was his intention 
to confer on him the tribunitian power. Meantime he gave 
to Naevius Sertorius Macro a secret commission to take the 
command of the guards, made him the bearer of a letter to 
the senate, and instructed him fully how to act. Macro 
entered Rome at night, and communicated his instructions 
to the consul, C. Memmius Regulus, (for his colleague was 
a creature of Sejanus,) and to Grsecinus Laco, the com- 
mander of the watchmen^ and arranged with them the plan 



A. D. 31.] FALL OF SE JANUS. 6S 

of action. Early in the morning, he went up to the temple 
of the Palatine Apollo, where the senate was to sit that day, 
and, meeting Sejanus, and finding him disturbed at Tiberius's 
having sent him no message, he whispered him that he had 
the grant of the tribunitian power for him. Sejanus then 
went in highly elated; and Macro, showing his commission 
to the guards on duty, and telling them that he had letters 
promising them a largess, sent them down to their camp, and 
put the watchmen about the temple in their stead. He then 
entered the temple, and, having delivered the letter to the 
consuls, immediately went out again, and, leaving Laco to 
watch the progress of events there, hastened down to the 
camp, lest there should be a mutiny of the guards. 

The letter was long and ambiguous ; it contained nothing 
direct against Sejanus, but first treated of something else, 
then came to a little complaint of him, then to some other 
matter, then it returned to him again, and so on; it conclu- 
ded by saying that two senators, who were most devoted to 
Sejanus, ought to be punished, and himself be cast into 
prison ; for, though Tiberius wished most ardently to have 
him executed, he did not venture to order his death, fearing 
a rebellion. He even implored them in the letter to send 
one of the consuls with a guard to conduct him, now an old 
man and desolate, into their presence. We are further told 
that such were his apprehensions, that he had given orders, 
in case of a tumult, to release his grandson Drusus, who 
was in chains at Rome, and put him at the head of those 
who remained faithful to his family ; and that he took his 
station on a lofty rock, watching for the signals that were 
to be made, having ships ready to carry him to some of the 
legions, in case any thing adverse should occur. 

His precautions, however, were needless. Before the letter 
was read, the senators, expecting to hear nothing but the 
praises of Sejanus and the grant of the tribunitian power, 
were loud in testifying their zeal toward him ; but, as the 
reading proceeded, their conduct sensibly altered ; their 
looks were no longer the same ; even some of those who 
were sitting near him rose and left their seats ; the prsetors 
and tribunes closed round him, lest he should rush out and 
try to raise the guards, as he certainly would have done, had 
not the letter been composed with such consummate artifice- 
He was in fact so thunderstruck, that it was not till the 
consul had called him the third time that he was able to 
reply. AH then joined in reviling and insulting him : he 



64 TIBERIUS. [a. D. 31. 

v/as conducted to the prison by the consul and the oth- 
er magistrates. As he passed along, the populace poured 
curses and abuse on him ; they cast down his statues, cut the 
heads off of them, and dragged them about the streets. The 
senate, seeing this disposition of the people, and finding that 
the guards remained quiet, met in the afternoon in the tem- 
ple of Concord, close to the prison, and condemned him to 
death. He was executed without delay; his lifeless body 
was flung down the Gemonian steps, and for three days it 
was exposed to every insult from the populace; it was then 
cast into the Tiber.* His children also were put to death : 
his little daughter, who was to have been the bride of the 
prince's grand-nephew, was so young and innocent, that, as 
they carried her to prison, she kept asking what she had 
done, and whither they were dragging her, adding that she 
would do so no more, and that she might be whipped if 
naughty. Nay, by one of those odious refinements of bar- 
barity which trample on justice and humanity while adhering 
to the letter of the law, because it was a thino^ unheard of 
for a virgin to be capitally punished, the executioner was 
made to deflower the child before he strangled her. Apica- 
ta, the divorced wife of Sejanus, on hearing of the death of 
her children, and seeing afterwards their lifeless bodies on 
the steps, went home ; and, having written to Tiberius a full 
account of the true manner of the death of Drusus, and 
of the guilt of Livilla, put an end to herself. In conse- 
quence of this discovery, Livilla, and all who were concerned 
in that murder, were put to death. 

The rage of the populace was also vented on the friends of 
Sejanus, and many of them were slaughtered. The praeto- 
rian guards, too, enraged at being suspected, and at the 
watchmen being preferred to them, began to burn and plun- 
der houses. The senators were in a state of the utmost per- 
turbation, some trembling on account of their having paid 
court to Sejanus, others, who had been accusers or witnesses, 
from not knowing how their conduct might be taken. All, 
however, conspired in heaping insult on the memory of the 
fallen favorite. 

Tiberius, now free from all apprehension, gave loose to 
his vencjeance. From his island retreat he issued his orders, 
and the prison was filled with the friends and creatures of 

" * See the graphic picture of the fall of Sejanus in Juvenal, Sat. x. 
56, seq. 



A. D. 32-33.] SEJANUS'S FRIENDS. ^ 

Sejanus; the baleful pack of informers was unkennelled, 
and their victims of both sexes were hunted to death. Some 
were executed in prison ; others were flung from the Capitol ; 
the lifeless remains were exposed to every kind of indignity, 
and then cast into the river. Most, however, chose a volun- 
tary death ; for they tlius not only escaped insult and pain, 
but preserved their property for their children. 

In the following year, (32,) Tiberius ventured to leave his 
island, and sail up the Tiber as far as Caesar's gardens ; but 
suddenly, no one knew why, he retreated again to his soli- 
tude, whence by letters he directed the course of cruelty at 
Rome. The commencement of one was so remarkable that 
historians have thought it deserving of a place in their works ; 
it ran thus : ** What I shall write to you, P. C, or how I shall 
write, or what I shall not write, at this time, may the gods and 
goddesses destroy me worse than I daily feel myself perishing, 
if I know."* A knight named M. Terentius, at this time, 
when accused of the new crime of Sejanus's friendship, had 
the courage to adopt a novel course of defence. He boldly 
acknowledged the charge, but justified his conduct by saying 
that he had only followed the example of the prince, whom it 
was their duty to imitate. The senate acquitted him, and 
punished his accusers with exile or death, and Tiberius ex- 
pressed himself well pleased at the decision. But, in the suc- 
ceeding year, (33,) his cruelty, joined with avarice, (a vice 
new to him,) broke out with redoubled violence. Tired of 
murdering in detail, he ordered a general massacre of all who 
lay in prison on account of their connection with Sejanus. 
Without distinction of age, sex, or rank, they were slaugh- 
tered ; their friends dared not to approach, or even be seen to 
shed tears ; and as their putrefying remains floated along the 
Tiber, no on« might venture to touch or to burn them. 

The deaths ofihis grandson Drusus, and his daughter-inr 
law Agrippina, were added to the atrocities of this year. 
The former perished by the famine to which he was destined, 
after he had sustained life till the ninth day by eating the 
stufiing of his bed. The tyrant then had the shamelessness 

* Suet. Tib. 67. Tac. Ann. vi. 6. " Adeo," adds Tacitus, " facinora 
atque flagitia sua ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant. Neque frustra 
prasstantissimus sapientias [Plato] firmare solitus est, si recludantur 
tyrannorum mentes posse aspici laniatus et ictus ; quando ut corpora 
verberibus, ita ssevitia, libidine, mails consultis animus dilaceretur,: 
quippe Tiberium non fortuna non solitudines protegebant quin tor- 
menta pectoris suasque ipse poenas fateretur." 

6* I 



66 TIBERIUS. [a. d. 33-37. 

to cause to be read in the senate the diary which had been 
kept of every thing the unhappy youth had said or done for 
a course of years, and of the indignities which he had endured 
from the slaves and guards who were set about him. Agrip- 
pina had cherished hopes of meeting with justice after the 
fall of Sejanus; but, finding them frustrated, she resolved to 
starve herself to death. Tiberius, when informed, ordered 
food to be forced down her throat; but she finally accom- 
plished her purpose : he then endeavored to defame her mem- 
ory by charging her with unchastity. As her death occurred 
on the same day as that of Sejanus, two years before, he di- 
rected it to be noted ; and he took to himself as a merit that 
he had not caused her to be strangled or cast down the Ge- 
monian steps. The obsequious senate returned him thanks 
for his clemency, and decreed that, on the 18th of October, 
the day of both their deaths, an offering in gold should be 
made to Jupiter. 

The Caesarian family was now reduced to Claudius, the 
brother, and Caius, the son of Germanicus, and his three 
daughters, Agrippina, Drusilla, and Livilla, (whom Tiberius 
had given in marriage respectively to Cn. Domitius, L. Cas- 
-sius, and M. Vinicius,) and Tiberius and Julia, the children 
of Drusus, which last had been married to her cousin Nero, 
and now was given in marriage to Rubellius Blandus. 

From his very outset in life, Tiberius had been obliged 
more or less to conceal his natural character. Auorustus, 
Germanicus, Drusus, his mother, had successively been a 
check on him ; and even Sejanus, though the agent of his 
cruelty, had been the cause of his lusts being restrained.* 
But now all barriers were removed ; for Caius was so abject 
a slave to him, that he modelled himself on his character 
and his words, only seeking to conceal his own vices. t He 
therefore now at length gave free course to all his vicious 
propensities ; and it almost chills the blood to read the details 
of the horrid practices in which he indulged amidst the rocks 
of CapresB. Meantime there was no relaxation of his cruelty ; 
Macro was as bad as Sejanus, only more covertly ; there was 
no lack of delators, and men of rank perished daily. 

Nature, however, at last began to give way. He had quit- 
ted his island, and approached to within seven miles of Rome, 
(37 ;) but terrified, it is said, by a prodigy, he did not ven- 
ture to enter the city. As he was on his way back to Cam- 

* Tac. Ann. vi. 51. t U. ib. 20. 



A.D. 33.] LAST ILLNESS OF TIBERIUS. 67 

pania, he fell sick at Astura ; having recovered a little, he 
went on to Circeii, where, to conceal his condition, he ap- 
peared at the public games, and even flung darts at a wild 
boar which was turned out into the arena. The effort, how- 
ever, exhausted him, and he became worse ; still he went 
on, and reached the former abode of Lucullus at Misenum. 
Each day he lay at table and indulged as usual. A physi- 
cian named Charicles, under pretence of tcking leave, one 
evening contrived to feel his pulse. Tiberius perceived his 
object, and, ordering more dishes up, lay longer than usual, 
under the pretext of doing honor to his departing friend ; but 
Charicles was not to be deceived; he told Macro that he 
could not last two days, and measures were forthwith taken 
for securing the succession of Caius. On the 16th of March, 
he swooned away, and appeared to be dead. Caius was con- 
gratulated by most of those present, and was preparing to 
assume the imperial power, when word was brought that 
Tiberius had revived and called for food. All slank avt^ay, 
feigning grief or ignorance : Caius remained in silence, ex- 
pecting his fate, when Macro boldly ordered clothes to be 
heaped on him ; and Tiberius thus was smothered to death, 
in the 78th year of his age. 



CHAPTER IV.* 

CAIUS JULIUS C^SAR CALIGULA. 

A.u. 790— 794. A.D. 37— 41. 

ACCESSION OF CAIUS. HIS VICES AND CRUELTY. BRIDGE 

OVER THE BAY OF BAIiE. HIS EXPEDITION TO GERMANY. 

HIS MAD CAPRICES. HIS DEATH. 

The intelligence of the death of Tiberius diffused univer- 
sal joy. The memory of Germanicus, and the hard fate of 
his family, recurred to men's minds, and led them to think 
favorably of his son, and to conceive hopes of happiness 

* Authorities : Suetonius and Dion. 



68 CAIU&. [a. D. 37. 

under his dominiGn. As Caius,* therefore, in a mourning 
habit, and in attendance on the corpse of his grandfather, 
moved from Misenum to Rome, joyful crowds poured forth 
to meet him, altars were raised and victims slain on the way, 
and the most endearing epithets greeted him as he passed 
along.t 

When he reached Rome, he proceeded to the senate-house, 
and the will of the late prince was opened and read. It ap- 
peared that he had left Caius and Tiberius the son of Drusus 
joint heirs ; but the will was at once set aside, under the pre- 
text of the testator not having been in his right mind, and 
the sole power was conferred on Caius, so entirely with the 
public approbation, that it was computed that in less than 
three months upwards of 169,000 victims were slain in testi- 
mony of the general joy. Caius, in return, was lavish of pro- 
fessions, assuring the senate that he would share his power 
with them, and do every thing that pleased them, calling 
himself their son and foster-child. He then released all who 
were in prison on charges of treason, and he burned (or 
rather pretended to do so) all the papers relating to them 
which Tiberius had left behind him, saying that he did so in 
order that, if he should feel ill disposed toward any one on 
account of his mother and brothers, he might not have it in 
his power to gratify his vengeance. 

As soon as he had celebrated the obsequies of his grand- 
father, whose funeral oration he pronounced himself, he got 
on shipboard, and, though the weather was tempestuous, 
passed over to the isles of Pandateria and Pontia; and, hav- 
ing collected, and with his own hand inurned the ashes of his 
mother and brother, he brought them to Rome, and deposited 
them in the Mausoleum of Augustus. He appointed annual 
religious rites in their honor ; he directed the month of Sep- 
tember to be called Germanicus, after his father ; he caused 
all the honors, which had ever been bestowed on Livia Au- 
gusta, to be conferred, by one decree, on his grandmother 
Antonia; he made his uncle Claudius, who had hitherto been 
in the equestrian order, his colleague in the consulate ; he 
adopted his cousin Tiberius the day he took the virile toga, 
and named him Prince of the Youth ; he caused his sisters' 

■'' So he is called by all the historians. For the origin of his soubri- 
quet "Calififula," see above, p. 44. 

t " Fausta omina sidus et pullum et puppum et alumnum appellan- 
tium." Suet. Cal. 13. 



A. D. 38*] FIRST ACTS OF CAIUS. 69 

names to be associated with his own in oaths and other so- 
lemnities.* 

He drove from the city all the ministers of the monstrous 
lusts of Tiberius, being with difficulty withheld from drown- 
ing them. He permitted the works of Cremutius Cordus and 
others to be made public. He gave the people abundance 
of public shows, and he distributed to them and the soldiers 
all the money that had been left them by Tiberius and Livia 
Augusta. 

Such was Caius in the first months of his reign. He then 
had a severe fit of illness, in consequence of which his intel- 
lect, it would seem, became disordered, for his remaining 
acts were those of a madman ; and the world witnessed the 
dreadful sight of a monster, devoid of reason, possessed of 
unlimited power. There, however, seems to have been no 
reason to expect that, under any circumstances, Caius would 
have made a good prince ; he was already stained with every 
vice. While yet a boy, he was, it was said, guilty of incest 
with his sister Drusilla. On the death of his wife, Junia 
Claudilla, the daughter of M. Silanus, he formed an adulter- 
ous connection with Ennia, the wife of Macro, and gave her 
an engagement to marry her if he should attain the empire. 
Though he conducted himself with the most consummate 
dissimulation, and manifested such obsequiousness to Tibe- 
rius as gave occasion to the well-known saying of Passienus, 
that " there never was a better slave nor a worse master," 
yet the sagacious old prince saw his real character ; and, as 
Caius was one day in his presence speaking with contempt 
of Sulla, he told him that he would have all Sulla's vices and 
none of his virtues ; he also said at times that Caius lived for 
his own destruction and that of all others, and that in him 
he was rearing a serpent for the Roman people and a Phae- 
thon for the earth. 

One of the first acts of Caius, after his restoration to 
health, was to put his cousin Tiberius to death, under the 
pretext of his having prayed that be might not recover. He 
also forced his father-in-law, Silanus, to terminate his own 
life, because he had not accompanied him on his late voyage, 
pretending that he intended to occupy the empire if any 
thing adverse had befallen him, though Silanus's only reason 

* " Auctor fuit ut omnibus sacramentis adjiceretur, Neque me libe- 
rosque meos cariores habebo quam Caium sororesque ejus. Item rela- 
tionibus consulum. Q;uod bonum felixque sit C. Ccesai'i sororibusque 
ejus.'' Suet. Cal. 15. 



70 CAius. [a. D. 38. 

had been dislike of the sea. A knight had vowed to fight as 
a gladiator, and another person to die, if Caius should re- 
cover ; and, instead of rewarding them as they expected, he 
forced them to perform their vows. 

Thus passed the first nine months of Caius's rule. He be- 
gan the next year (38) auspiciously, by directing that the 
accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the revenue should 
be made public, according to the practice adopted by Augus- 
tus, but intermitted by Tiberius. He also revised the eques- 
trian order, removing unworthy members, and introducing men 
of birth and property. He restored to the people the right of 
election, and abolished the excise duty of one per cent. — 
measures, however, both, it is said, condemned by men of 
sense, who deemed that no good could arise from giving 
power to those who knew not how to exercise it, and from 
diminishing without cause the regular revenue of the state. 

On the other hand, he showed the natural ferocity of his 
disposition by the delight with which he regarded the mas- 
sacres of the amphitheatre, where, on one occasion, the num- 
ber of condemned persons who were to be exposed to the 
wild beasts proving short, he ordered some of the spectators 
to be seized and cast to them, having previously cut out 
their tongues, to prevent their crying out or reproaching him. 
He made Macro and his wife, Ennia, be their own execu- 
tioners, and he put to death numbers of persons on the 
charge of having been the enemies of his parents or his 
brothers, producing against them the very papers which he 
jiretended to have burnt. It was in fact the desire to gain 
possession of their properties that wa.s his motive ; for the 
vast treasures accumulated by Tiberius had already been 
dissipated. 

Caius had renewed his incestuous commerce with his sis- 
ter Drusilla, whom he took from her husband, L. Cassius, 
and then married to M. Lepidus, also the partaker in his 
vices. She died, however, in the course of the year ; and 
nothing could exceed the grief which he manifested. He 
gave her a magnificent public funeral, and proclaimed so 
strict a Justiiium, that it was a capital offence to laugh, 
bathe, or dine with one's own family or relations. Ail the 
honors which had been conferred on Livia were decreed to 
her ; her statue was placed in the senate-house and forum. 
A temple was built and priests appointed in her honor ; 
women, in giving testimony, were to swear by her divinity ; 
a festival like that of the Mother of the Gods was to be cele- 



A. D. 39.] CAIUS'S PROFLIGACY. Tl 

brated on her birthday, and under the name of Panthea she 
received divine honors in all the cities of the empire. A 
senator named Livius Geminius obtained a large reward by 
swearing, imprecating destruction on himself and his chil- 
dren if he lied, that he saw her ascending into heaven and 
mingling with the gods. Caius, in the first vehemence of 
his grief, fled from Rome in the night, and never stopped 
till he reached Syracuse, whence he returned with his hair 
and beard grown to a great length. His oath ever after, 
when addressing the people or the soldiers, was by the deity 
of Drusilla. He lived in an incestuous commerce with his 
other sisters also, and at meals they used to lie by turns be- 
low him in the triclinium, while his wife lay above ; yet he 
used to prostitute them to the ministers of his lusts. 

His first wife, after he came to the empire, was Livia 
Orestilla; this lady was married to C. Piso ; but Caius, when 
invited to the nuptial feast, took a fancy to her, and saying 
to Piso, " Do not touch my wife," carried her off; and next 
day he issued an edict, saying " that he had purveyed him a 
wife after the fashion of Romulus and Augustus." Within 
a few days, however, he divorced her ; and, two years after, he 
banished her for having resumed her intimacy with her first 
husband. Hearing the beauty of the grandmother of Lollia 
Paullina praised, he summoned that lady from the province 
where her husband, Memmius Regulus, was in the command 
of the troops, and, having obliged Regulus to divorce her, he 
made her his wife. 

The following year (39) witnessed the same scenes of 
cruelty and of reckless extravagance ; it was distinguished 
by the novel caprice of bridging over the sea from Baiae to 
Puteoli, a space of more than three miles and a half All 
kinds of craft were collected, so that, in consequence of the 
want of foreign corn, a great scarcity prevailed throughout 
Italy ; and, these not proving sufficient, a large number were 
built for the purpose : they were anchored in two lines, and 
timber laid across them, and a way thus formed similar to 
the Appian road. Places for rest and refreshment were 
erected at regular distances, and pipes laid for conveying 
fresh water. When all was completed, Caius, putting on the 
breastplate (as it was said to be) of Alexander the Great, a 
military cloak of purple silk adorned with gold and precious 
stones, and girding on a sword, and grasping a shield, his 
brows crowned with oak, and having previously sacrificed 
to Neptune and some other gods, (particularly to Envy, to 



72 CAius. [a. d. 39. 

escape her influence,) entered the bridge from Baiae, mount- 
ed on a stately horse, and followed by horse and foot in 
warlike array, and, passing along rapidly, entered Puteoli as 
a captured city. Having rested there as after a battle, he 
returned the next day along the bridge in a two-horsed 
chariot, drawn by the most famous winning horses of the 
circus. Spoils and captives (among whom was Darius, an 
Arsacid, one of the Parthian hostages then at Rome) pre- 
ceded the sham conqueror ; his friends followed in chariots, 
and the troops brought up the rear. The glorious victor 
ascended a tribunal erected on a ship about the centre of the 
bridge, and harangued and extolled his triumphant warriors. 
He then caused a banquet to be spread on the bridge as if 
it were an island, and, all who were to partake of it crowding 
round it in vessels of every kind, the rest of the day and 
the whole of the night were spent in feasting and revelry. 
Lights shone from the bridge and the vessels; the hills 
which enclose the bay were illumined with fires and torches ; 
the whole seemed one vast theatre, and night converted 
into day, as sea was into land. But the monster, for whose 
gratification all these effects had been produced, could not 
refrain from indulging his innate ferocity. When his spirits 
were elevated with meat and wine, he caused several of 
those who were with him on the bridge to be flung into the 
sea, and then, getting into a beaked ship, he sailed to and fro, 
striking and sinking the vessels which lay about the bridge, 
filled with revellers. Some were drowned; but, owing to 
the calmness of the sea, the greater part, though they were 
drunk, escaped. 

Various causes were assigned for this mtid freak of bridg- 
ing over the sea. Some ascribed it, and probably with rea- 
son, to the wish to surpass Xerxes ; others said that his 
object was to strike with awe of his power the Germans and 
Britons, whose countries he meditated to invade. Suetonius 
says that, when a boy, he heard from his grandfather that the 
reason assigned by the people of the palace was a desire to 
give the lie to a declaration of the astrologer Trasyllus, who, 
on being consulted by Tiberius about the succession, had 
said that " Caius would no more reign than he would drive 
horses through the Bay of Baise." 

Whatever was the cause, the effect was the destruction of 
an additional number of the Roman nobility, for the sake of 
confiscating their properties, in order to replace the enor- 
mous sums which the bridgre had absorbed. When Rome 



A. D. 39.] GERMAN EXPEDITION. 73 

and Italy had been thus tolerably well exhausted of their 
wealth, the tyrant resolved to pillage in like manner the 
opulent provinces of Gaul, and then those of Spain. Under 
the pretext of repelling the Germans, he suddenly collected 
an army, and set out for Gaul, going sometimes so rapidly 
that the praetorian cohorts were obliged to put their stand- 
ards on the beasts of burden, at other times having himself 
carried in a litter, and the people of the towns on the way 
being ordered to sweep and water the roads before him. He 
was attended by a large train of women, gladiators, dancers, 
running-horses, and the other instruments of his luxury. 
When he reached the camp of the legions, he affected the 
character of a strict commander, dismissing with ignominy 
such of the legates as brought up the auxiliary contingents 
slowly. He then turned to robbing both officers and men, 
by dismissing th-em a little before they were entitled to their 
discharge, and cutting down the pensions of the rest to 
6000 sesterces. 

The son of Cinobellinus, a British prince, who was ban- 
ished by his father, having come and made his submission 
to him, he wrote most magniloquent letters to Rome, as if 
the whole island had submitted. He crossed the Rhine as 
if in quest of the German foes ; but some one happening to 
say, as the troops were engaged in a narrow way, that there 
would be no little consternation if the enemy should then ap- 
pear, he sprang from his chariot in a fright, mounted his 
horse, and gallopped back to the bridge, and, finding it filled 
with the men and beasts of the baggage-train, he scrambled 
over their heads to get beyond the river. On another occa- 
sion, he ordered some of his German guards to conceal them- 
selves on the other side of the Rhine, and intelligence to be 
brought to him, as he sat at dinner, that the enemy was at 
hand ; he sprang up, mounted his horse, and, followed by his 
friends and part of the guards, rode into the adjoining wood, 
and, cutting the trees and forming a trophy, returned with it 
to the camp by torch-light. He then reproached the cow- 
ardice of those who had not shared his toils and dangers, and 
rewarded with what he called exploratory croivns those who 
had accompanied him. Again, he took the young German 
hostages from their school, and, having secretly sent them on, 
he jumped up from a banquet, pursued them, as if they were 
running away, with a body of cavalry, and brought them 
back in chains. In an edict he severely rebuked the senate 
and people of Rome for holding banquets, and frequenting 

CONTIN. 7 J 



74 CAius. [a. d. 39. 

theatres and delicious retreats, while Caesar was carrying on 
war, and exposed to such dangers. 

His invasion of Britain was, if possible, still more ridicu- 
lous. He marched his troops to the coast, and drew them 
up with all their artillery on the strand. He then got aboard 
of a galley, and, going a little way out to sea, returned, and, 
ascending a lofty tribunal, gave the signal for battle, and, at 
the sound of trumpets, ordered them to charge the ocean, 
and gather its shells as spoils due to the Capitol and Pala- 
tiura. He bestowed a large donative on his victorious 
troops, and built a lighthouse to commemorate the conquest 
of ocean. 

Meantime he was not neglectful of the purpose for which 
he came. He pillaged indiscriminately, and put to death 
numbers whose only crime was their wealth. One day, 
when he was playing at dice, he discovered that his money 
was out ; he retired, and, calling for the census of the Gauls, 
selected the names of the richest men in it, ordering them to 
be put to death ; then, returning to his company, he said, 
'^ You are playing for a few denars, but I have collected a 
hundred and fifty millions." He afterwards caused the most 
precious jewels and other possessions of the monarchy to be 
sent to him, and put them up to auction, saying, " This was 
my father's ; this was my mother's ; this Egyptian jewel be- 
longed to Antonius ; this to Augustus ; " and so on, at the 
same time declaring that distress alone caused him to sell 
them. The buyers were of course obliged to give far beyond 
the real value of the articles. 

Among those put to death while he was in Gaul was M. 
Lepidus, the husband of his beloved Drusilla, and the sharer 
in all his vices and debaucheries. The pretext was a con- 
spiracy of Lepidus with Livilla and Agrippina against his 
life. He wrote to the senate in the most opprobrious terms 
of his sisters, whom he banished to the Pontian isles. As he 
was sending them back to Italy for this purpose, he obliged 
Agrippina to carjy the whole way in her bosom the lirn 
which contained the ashes of Lepidus. To commemorate 
his escape, he sent three daggers to be consecrated to Mars 
the Avenger. 

At this time also he put away Lollia Paullina, under the 
pretext of her infecundity, and married Milonia Caesonia, a 
woman neither handsome nor young, and of the most disso- 
lute habits, and the mother already of three daughters. She 
was at the time so far gone with child by him that she was 



A. D. 40.] CAIUS IN GAUL. 75 

delivered of a daughter immediately after her marriage. He 
loved her ardently as long as he lived ; he used to exhibit 
her naked to his friends, and take her riding about w^ith him 
through the ranks of the soldiery, arrayed in a cloak, helmet, 
and light buckler. Yet he would at times, in his fondness, 
protest that he would put her to the rack to make her tell 
why he loved her so much. 

Before he left Gaul, (40,) he proposed to massacre the 
legions which had mutinied against his father. He was dis- 
suaded from this course; but nothing would withhold him 
from decimating them, at the least. He therefore called them 
together unarmed, and surrounded them with his cavalry ; 
but, when he observed that they suspected his design, and 
were gradually slipping away to resume their arms, he lost 
courage, and, flying from the camp, hastened back to Rome, 
breathing vengeance against the senate. To the deputies, sent 
to entreat him to hasten his return, his words were, " I will 
come — I will come ; and this with me," striking the hilt of 
his sword ; and he declared that the senate would find him 
in future neither a citizen nor a prince. He entered Rome 
in ovation instead of triumph on his birthday, (Aug. 31,) the 
last he was to witness ; for the measure of his guilt was full, 
and the patience of mankind nearly exhausted. 

It may be worth while to notice some of the acts of which 
a madman possessed of absolute power was capable. 

Caius declared himself to be a god, and had a temple 
erected to his deity, in which stood a golden statue of him, 
habited each day as he was himself Peacocks, pheasants, 
and other rare birds, were oifered in sacrifice every day : his 
wife Caesonia, his uncle Claudius, and some persons of great 
wealth, (who had to purchase the office at a high rate,) were 
the priests. He added himself and his horse Incitatus to the 
college. He appeared in the habit and with the insignia 
sometimes of one, sometimes of another god or goddess. He 
used to invite the moon, when shining full and bright, to de- 
scend to his embraces. He would enter the temple of the 
Capitoline Jupiter, and engage in confidential discourse, as 
it were, with the god, sometimes even chiding or threatening 
him. Being invited, he said, to share the abode of that 
deity, he threw a bridge, for the purpose, over the Forum, 
from the Palatium to the Capitol. It would be endless to 
relate all his freaks of thi& kind. 

He devised new and extraordinary taxes. He laid an im- 
post on all kinds of eatables, he demanded two and a half 



76 CAius. [a. d. 40. 

per cent, on all lawsuits, and severely punished all those 
who compounded their actions. Porters were required to pay 
an eighth of their daily earnings ; prostitutes were taxed in 
a similar manner. He even opened a brothel in his palace, 
which he filled with respectable women, and sent persons 
through the Forum inviting people to resort to it. When 
his daughter was born, he complained bitterly of his pov- 
erty, and received presents for her support and dower. On 
new year's day, he used to stand at the porch to receive the 
gifts which were brought to him. He would often walk 
barefoot on heaps of gold coin, or lie down and roll himself 
on them. 

His natural cruelty made him delight in the combats of 
gladiators : he was equally fond of chariot-races; and, as he 
chose to favor the sea-colored faction, he used to cause the 
best drivers and horses of their rivals (the green) to be poi- 
soned. He was so fond of one of his own horses named 
Incitatus, that he used to invite him to dinner, give him 
gilded barley and wine out of golden cups, and swear by his 
safety and his fortune ; and he was only prevented by death 
from raising him to the consulate. 

One day, at a show of gladiators, he ordered the awning, 
which screened the spectators from the burning rays of the 
sun, to be withdrawn, and forbade any one to be let go out. 
Another time, when the people applauded contrary to his 
wishes, he cried out, " O that the Roman people had but 
one neck ! " 

A conspiracy at length delivered the world from the mon- 
ster who thus oppressed it. The principal freedmen and 
officers of the guards were concerned in it ; they were actu- 
ated by a principle of self-preservation, and not by any patri- 
otic views or generous aspirations after the liberty and 
happiness of the Roman people. It was, in effect, such a 
conspiracy as most usually occurs in absolute and despotic 
governments.* The most active agents were Cassius Chae- 
rea and Cornelius Sabinus, two tribunes of the guards, 
who had private motives of revenge, in particular Cas- 
sius, whom, though advanced in years, and a man of great 
strength and courage, Caius used to term effeminate, and to 
give Venus or Priapus, or some such lascivious term, when 
he came to him for the watchword. 

* A very circumstantial account of the murder of Caius, and the suc- 
cession of Claudius, is given by Josephus, Antiq. xix. 1 — 4. 



A, D. 41.] DEATH OF CAIUS. 77 

On the 24th of January, (41,) a little after noon, though 
his stomach was suffering from the effects of the previous 
day's excess, Caius yielded to the instances of his friends, 
and was proceeding from the theatre, where he had passed 
the morning, to the dining-room. As he was going along 
the vaulted passage leading to it, he stopped to inspect some 
boys of noble birth from Ionia, whom he had caused to 
come to Rome to sing in public a hymn made in his honor. 
While thus engaged, he was fallen on and slain by Chserea, 
Sabinus, and other officers of the guards. A centurion, by 
the order of Chserea, killed, in the course of the night, his 
wife, Caesonia, and the brains of their infant daughter were 
dashed out against a wall. Such was the end of this execra- 
ble tyrant, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, after a reign 
of somewhat less than four years. After his death, there 
were found in his cabinet two books, the one having for its 
title the Sword, the other the Dagger, and containing the 
names of those whom he intended to put to death. There 
was also discovered a large chest full of all kinds of poisons. 



CHAPTER v.* 
TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CiESAR. 
A. u. 794—807. A. D. 41—55. 

ACCESSION OF CLAUDIUS. HIS CHARACTER. HIS USEFUL 

MEASURES. MESSALINA AND THE FREEDMEN. HER 

LUST AND CRUELTY. CLAUDIUS IN BRITAIN. VICIOUS 

CONDUCT OF MESSALINA. HER DEATH. CLAUDIUS MAR- 
RIES AGRIPPINA. — IS POISONED BY HER. 

As soon as the death of Caius was known, the consuls set 
guards throughout the city, and assembled the senate on the 
Capitol, where the remainder of the day and all the night 
were spent in deliberation ; some wishing to reestablish the 
republic, others to continue the monarchy. But while they 
were deliberating, the question had been already determined 
in the camp of the praetorian cohorts. 

* Authorities : Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dion. 



78 CLAUDIUS. [a. d. 41 

When Caius was slain, his uncle Claudius, in his terror, 
hid himself behind the door curtains of one of the rooms. A 
common soldier, who was running through the palace in 
quest of plunder, happening to see his feet under the cur- 
tain, dragged him out. Claudius fell on his knees, suing 
for mercy; but the soldier, recognizing him, saluted him em- 
peror, and led him to his comrades, who placed him in a 
litter, and carried him, trembling for his life, to their camp. 
The consuls sent the tribunes of the people to summon him 
as a senator to come and give his presence at their delibera- 
tions ; but he replied that he was detained by force. In the 
morning, however, finding the troops unanimous in their 
design of conferring the supreme power on him, he con- 
sented to accept it, promising them a gratuity of 15,000 
sesterces a man — thus introducing the pernicious practice 
of bargaining for the support of the guards. The senate, 
•unable to agree among themselves, finding the people indif- 
ferent, and being deserted by the urban cohorts, abandoned 
the futile project of restoring the republic, and quietly yield- 
ed submission to the behest of the soldiery. . 

Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar, who was thus unexpect- 
edly raised to empire, was the younger brother of Germani- 
cus. He was from infancy of a sickly, delicate constitu- 
tion, and the disease of his body affected his mind. His 
mother, Antonia, used to call him a portent of a man begun 
but not completed by nature ; and when she would describe 
any one as particularly stupid, she would say he was a great- 
er fool than her son Claudius. His grandmother Livia 
held him in the most supreme contempt. Augustus had so 
mean an opinion of him, that he would not confer on him 
any of the honors of the state. Tiberius treated him in a 
similar manner. Caius, in the first days of his reign, made 
him his colleague in the consulate; but it was only his con- 
tempt for his folly (which Claudius cunningly affected be- 
yond nature) that saved him from sharing the fate of so 
many better men. 

Mental ability is very distinct from good sense and wis- 
dom. It need not therefore surprise us to learn that this 
prince, whose name in his own family was synonymous with 
stupidity, was learned, and wrote with ease and elegance in 
both the Greek and Latin languages.* He also, as is usual- 
ly the case with such persons, exhibited occasional glimpses 

* Suetonius (Claud. 41) speaks rather favorably of his historical 
writings. He seems to have been honest and impartial. 



A. D. 42] ACTS OF CLAUDIUS. W 

of shrewdness and sagacity, and made just observations, and 
conceived or proposed judicious plans. In fact, in examin- 
ing the history and character of Claudius, one is often re- 
minded of James I. of England, though the advantage, it 
must be allow^ed, is greatly on the side of the British mon- 
arch. 

The first act of Claudius was to declare a full and com- 
plete amnesty (to which he faithfully adhered) of all that 
had been said and done in the last two days. He executed, 
however, Chaerea, and some of the other assassins of Caius, 
not out of regard to him, but to deter others from attempt- 
ing the life of an emperor ; Sabinus died by his own hand. 
Claudius exhibited no enmity against those who had injured 
or insulted him in the two last reigns, of whom the number 
was necessarily not small. He entirely abolished the law 
of treason ; and, taking the Sword and Dagger, and all the 
papers which Caius had pretended to burn, he showed them 
to the senate, and, letting them see the names of the writers, 
and of the persons against whom they were written, burned 
them in good earnest. While he sedulously abolished all the 
wild innovations of Caius, he was anxious to have all kinds 
of honors bestowed on the memory of his family. He re- 
called his nieces Agrippina and Livilla from their exile, and 
restored to them their property. 

Claudius, who was fifty years of age, and whose life had 
been passed chiefly in the study of antiquity, understood and 
wished to conform as much as possible to the forms of the 
ancient constitution. He declined to use the prsenomen 
emperor ; he refused excessive honors ; he celebrated the 
weddings of his two daughters as if he had been a simple citi- 
zen ; he did nothing of public import without the authority 
of the senate ; he showed all due marks of respect to the 
consuls and the other magistrates. By this conduct, he so 
won the popular favor, that, when one time he went to Ostia, 
and a rumor was spread that he had been assassinated, the 
people assembled and poured their maledictions on the sen- 
ate and the guards, as murderers and traitors, and were not 
pacified till they were assured by the magistrates of his 
safety. 

In the second year of his reign, (42,) Claudius commenced 
a work of great utility, but of enormous expense. For many 
years past, tillage had been so completely abandoned in Ita- 
ly, that nearly all the corn that was used in Rome was im- 
ported from Africa and Sicily. But, as there were no secure 



80 CLAUDIUS. [a. d. 42. 

ports or landing-places at the mouth of the Tiber, the sup- 
plies could only be brought in during the fine season ; and, if 
a sufficient quantity was not then warehoused for the winter's 
consumption, a famine was the sure consequence. To rem- 
edy this evil, Claudius, undeterred by the magnitude of the 
estimate given in by the surveyors, resolved to construct a 
port at Ostia. It was formed in the following manner : A 
large basin was dug in the land, on the right bank of the 
river, and the sea let into it ; two extensive moles were then 
run out into the sea, including another large basin, at the 
entrance to which, on an artificial island, stood a Pharos or 
lighthouse to direct vessels into it.* By means of this port, 
corn could be brought in at all times of the year, and the 
danger of famine in the city was greatly diminished. An- 
other public work, effected by Claudius, was the bringing the 
stream named the New Anio to Rome, and distributing it 
there into a number of handsome reservoirs. He attempted 
a still greater work, namely, the draining of the Fucine lake, 
in the Marsian country, of which we shall hereafter have 
occasion to speak. Another of his public works was the 
rebuilding of the theatre of Pompeius, which had been de- 
stroyed by fire. 

The conduct of Claudius had been so far commendable ; 
but constancy was not to be expected in a man of his feeble 
character. It was observed that he took immoderate delight 
in the barbarous sports of the amphitheatre, and hence it was 
inferred that he would shed blood without any repugnance ; 
but what caused greater apprehension was his absolute sub- 
mission to his wife and freedmen, of whose will he was 
merely the agent. His wife was Valeria Messalina, the 
daughter of his cousin Barbatus Messala, a woman whose 
name has become proverbial for infamy. His most distin- 
guished freedmen were the eunuch Posidus ; Felix, whom 
he made governor of JudsBa, and who had the fortune to be 
the husband of three queens ; and Callistus, who retained the 
power which he had acquired under Caius. But far supe- 
rior in point of influence to these were the three secretaries, 
(as we may term them,) Polybius, Narcissus, and Pallas. 
The first was the assistant of his studies, (« studiis,) and 
ranked so high that he might be often seen walking between 
the two consuls ; Narcissus was his private secretary, {ah 

* Dion, Ix. 11. Suet. Claud. 20. Juvenal (Sat, xii. l^,seq.) also de- 
scribes this port. 



A. D. 42.] MESSALINA AND THE FREEDMEN. 61 

epistolis ;) and Pallas (the brother of Felix) was treasurer, 
(a rationihus.) The two last were in strict league with 
Messalina ; she only sought to gratify her lusts ; they longed 
for honors, power, and wealth; and such were the riches 
they acquired, that when Claudius was one time complain- 
ing of the poverty of his exchequer, some one told him that 
he would be rich enough if he could induce his two freed- 
men to take him into partnership. 

Their plan, when they would have any one put to death, 
was to terrify Claudius (who, like w^eak people in general, 
was a consummate coward) by tales of plots against his life. 
They commenced in his very second year, by assailing C. 
Annaeus Silanus, whom Claudius had summoned from Spain, 
where he was governor, given him in marriage the mother 
of Messalina, and treated him as one of his most intimate 
friends. The abandoned Messalina soon cast an eye of lust 
on her stepfather ; and, on his rejecting her advances, she 
plotted with Pallas to destroy him. Accordingly, Pallas 
came, early one morning, into Claudius's chamber, and told 
him that he had had a dream, in which he saw him slain 
by Silanus. Messalina helped to increase his alarm, and an 
order was obtained for the execution of the innocent no- 
bleman. 

This wanton murder caused general alarm, and was thfe 
occasion of a conspiracy against Claudius, in which the 
principal person engaged was Annaeus Vinicianus, a man of - 
high rank. As he had no force to oppose to the guards, he 
sent to Furius Camillus Scribonianus, who commanded in 
Dalmatia, inviting him to join in the conspiracy, and holding 
out to him a prospect of the empire. Camillus assented ; 
many senators and knights repaired to him ; he took the 
title of emperor, and wrote to Claudius, desiring him to re- 
tire into a private station — a command which the feeble 
prince had thoughts of obeying. But the legions of Ca- 
millus, though at first inclined to second him, when they 
heard him speak of the people, and of ancient liberty, began 
to think that a revolution would not be for their advantage. 
They therefore refused to obey him, and he fled to an island 
off the coast, and put an end to his life. Messalina and the 
freedmen now gave a loose to their passion for blood and for 
plunder. Slaves and freedmen were admitted as witnesses 
against their masters; and, though Claudius had sworn, at 
his accession, that no freeman should be put to the torture, 
knights and senators, citizens and strangers, were tortured 



82 CLAUDIUS. [a. d. 43. 

alike. Vinicianus and some others anticipated the execu- 
tioner. Men and women perished alike, and their bodies 
were indiscriminately flung down the Gemonian Steps. 
Yet some, and those of the most guilty, escaped, partly by 
favor, partly by money given to the freedmen ; and the chil- 
dren, without exception, of those who perished remained 
uninjured ; some even obtained part of the property of their 
family. 

Among those who suffered, there were two whose cases 
are deserving of notice. Galaisus, a freedman of Camillus, 
when brought before Claudius and the senate, exhibited 
great constancy and courage. Pallas, stepping forward 
presumptuously, said to him, " What would you have done, 
GalaBsus, if Camillus had become the monarch? " " I would 
have stood behind him and held my tongue ! " was the reply 
of the undaunted freedman. The other case was that of 
CaBcina Psetus and his wife, Arria. When Paetus, who was 
engaged with Camillus, was put on board a ship to be con- 
veyed to Rome, Arria besought the soldiers to allow her to 
go in the vessel with him, saying that surely they would let 
a man of consular rank have some slaves to dress him and 
to attend him at table, and that she would discharge these 
offices. They, however, refused, and she then hired a small 
fishing-boat, and followed the ship.* When Paetus was con- 
demned to die, this high-minded woman, though she might 
have lived in honor by the favor of Messalina, who had 
much regard for her, disdained to survive him ; and not 
merely so, but when she saw him hesitating to die, she took 
the sword, and, having stabbed herself, handed it to him, 
saying, "See! Paetus; I am in no pain." "They were 
praised," adds the historian Dion ; for, from the continuance 
of evil, matters were come to that state that nothing but 
dying courageously was counted virtue. 

At length, when no more victims remained, the persecu- 
tion ceased, (43.) Claudius then, as usual, made some use- 
ful acts of legislation, such as diminishing the number of 
holidays, and obliging governors to repair betimes to their 
provinces, and not to remain in the city. He also deprived 
many unworthy persons of the right of citizenship, and con- 
ferred it on others. In this Messalina and the freedmen 
carried on a most extensive trade; and, in their eagerness to 
catch at all that could be obtained, they brought down so 

* Plin. Ep. iii. 16. 



A. D. 44.] CRUELTY OF MESSALINA. 83 

much the price, (which used to be very high,) that it became 
a common saying that one had only to give a parcel of bro- 
ken glass to be made a citizen. 

Messalina now set no bounds to her vicious courses. Not 
content with being infamous herself, she would have others 
so; and she actually used to compel ladies to prostitute 
themselves even in the palace, and before the eyes of their 
husbands, whom she rewarded with honors and commands, 
while she contrived to destroy those who would not acquiesce 
in their wives' dishonor. Her cruelty extended also to her 
own sex, and to her husband's kindred; she had already (41) 
caused Livilla to be put to death, on a charge of adultery, 
(in which the philosopher Seneca was implicated, and in 
consequence exiled to Corsica;) but the real ground of of- 
fence was Livilla's beauty, and her intimacy with her uncle. 
She now became jealous of Julia, the granddaughter of Ti- 
berius, whom she soon contrived to deprive of life. Mean- 
time her own excesses were unknown to her husband, for 
she generally caused one of her maids to occupy her place 
in his bed ; and she bought off by benefits, or anticipated by 
punishments, those who could give him information.* 

The wars on the frontiers had been of late against the 
Germans in Europe, and the Moors in Africa, and Ser. 
Sulpicius Galba, the future emperor, had vanquished the 
Chattans, and C. Suetonius Paulinus had carried the Roman 
arms to the foot of Atlas. The plan of conquering Britain 
was now resumed, and partly effected. t An exiled British 
prince having applied to Claudius, orders were sent to A. 
Plautius, who commanded in Gaul, to lead his troops into 
the island. Plautius obeyed, and subdued a part of the 
country south of the Thames. At his desire, Claudius him- 
self proceeded to Britain ; and, having crossed that river, 
and defeated an army of the natives, he returned to Rome 
(after a stay of only sixteen days in the island) and celebrated 
a triumph, (44.) The title of Britannicus was decreed by 
the senate to himself and to his young son, and honors were 
conferred on Messalina similar to those enjoyed by Livia 
Augusta. 

Little of importance occurred for the next two or three 
years. As the 800th year of the city arrived in his reign, 

* The picture of the depravity of this abandoned woman given by 
Juvenal (vi. 114, seq.) is not overcharged. 

t For the affairs of Britain, the reader is referred to the author's 
History of England. 



8i# CLAUDIUS. [a. d. 47. 

(47,) Claudius celebrated the srecular games, alleging (it 
would seem with truth, though he had asserted the contrary 
in his own historical works) that Augustus had anticipated 
the proper time. The proclamation being made in the usual 
form, caused a good deal of merriment ; for the crier invited 
the people to games " which no one had seen before nor 
would ever see again," whereas there were many who well 
remembered those of Augustus in the year 737, and even 
some of the actors who had then performed appeared now 
on the stage.* 

While Claudius was celebrating his games, and regula- 
ting, often advantageously, the affairs of the empire, Messali- 
na still ran her mad career of vice, often making her stupid 
husband the broker, as it were, of her pleasures. Thus, 
when Mnester, a celebrated dancer, with whom she fell 
violently in love, could be seduced neither by her promises 
nor her threats, she obtained from Claudius (pretending some 
other purpose) an order to him to do whatever she should 
require of him. Mnester therefore, thinking that she had 
full license from her husband, complied with her desires. 
The same was the case with many others, who deemed that 
they were acting in obedience to the wishes of the prince 
when intriguing with his wife. 

The chief object of her affection at this time was C. Sil- 
ius, the handsomest man in Rome, and then consul elect. 
She drove away his wife, Junia Silana, that she might have 
the sole possession of him ; and Silius, knowing that to re- 
fuse would be his destruction, while by compliance he might 
possibly escape, yielded to his fate. The adulteress had 
now become so secure, that she disdained concealment ; she 
went openly to his house ; she heaped wealth and honors 
on him ; the slaves, the freedmen, the whole property, as it 
were, of the prince, were transferred to the house of her 
paramour. Messalina thought not of danger; but Silius saw 
that he was so deep in guilt, that he or Claudius must fall. 
He therefore proposed to his mistress the murder of her 
husband, and the seizure of the supreme power, offering 
then to marry her, and to adopt her son. She hesitated, 
not from affection to her husband, but from fear lest Silius 
should, when in power, cast her off. The prospect of a 
more eminent degree of infamy finally prevailed with her, 

* [Both these statements are highly improbable, not to say impossi- 
ble, no less than 63 years having passed between the times. — J. T. S.j 



A. D. 48.] CONDUCT OF MESSALINA. 85 

and she even resolved to become the wife of Silius at 
once. 

What followed, Tacitus thought would be regarded as so 
utterly beyond belief, that he deemed it necessary to assure 
his readers, that he faithfully recorded the accounts trans- 
mitted by contemporary writers. Taking advantage of the 
absence of Claudius, who was gone to celebrate a sacrifice 
at Ostia, (48,) Messalina and Silius had their marriage pub- 
licly performed, with all the requisite forms and ceremonies; 
and, as it was now the season of the vintage, they and their 
friends, habited as Bacchanals, acted all kinds of extrav- 
agances in the gardens of Silius's house. The freedmen, 
meantime, consulted how they should act. The confidence 
between them and Messalina was at an end, for she had 
caused Polybius to be put to death, and they saw that no 
reliance could be placed on her. The others hesitated, but 
Narcissus resolved to run all risks, and inform Claudius of 
her conduct. Having made the rest promise not to give 
Messalina any warning, he hastened down to Ostia, and 
there prevailed on Calpurnia and Cleopatra, two mistresses 
of the prince, to communicate to him the intelligence. 
Accordingly, when they were alone with him, Calpurnia, 
throwing herself at his knees, exclaimed that Messalina wa& 
married to Silius ; Cleopatra confirmed her words ; Narcissus 
was then called in. He craved pardon for having concealed 
her former transgressions, but said that this was a more se- 
rious case, and that the empire itself was at stake. Claudius 
then consulted with his friends, and it was their unanimous 
opinion that he should hasten at once to the camp of the 
praetorians, and secure their fidelity. As, however, Geta, their 
commander, could not be relied on. Narcissus, seconded by 
those who stood in equal peril with himself, declared that it 
was absolutely necessary that the command of the guards 
should for that one day be transferred to one of the freed- 
men, and offered to take the charge on himself Then, fear- 
ing lest L. Vitellius and P. Largus Csecina, who were the 
creatures of Messalina, should succeed in moving Claudius 
to pity on his way to Rome, he asked and obtained a seat in 
the same carriage with him and them. 

Intelligence of what was going on at Ostia soon reached 
Rome. The guilty pair were struck with consternation. 
Messalina retired to the gardens of Lucullus, for the sake of 
which (a Roman Jezebel) she had, by means of her creature 
L. Vitellius, lately caused their owner, Valerius Asiaticus, 

CONTIN. 8 



SQ CLAUDIUS. [a. d. 48. 

to be judicially murdered. Silius, to conceal his fears, went 
about his public duties ; but some centurions soon arrived, 
who put him and many others in bonds. Messalina resolved 
to try the effect of her presence on her weak husband. She 
ordered his children Britannicus and Octavia to be brought 
to her ; she implored Vibidia, the eldest of the Vestals, to 
come and intercede for her. She then, with only three com- 
panions, crossed the city on foot, and, getting into a gar- 
dener's cart, set out on the road to Ostia. 

When she met her husband, she cried out to him from afar 
to hear the mother of Octavia and Britannicus ; but Narcis- 
sus reiterated Silius and her marriage, and gave Claudius 
the records of her infamy to read. As he was entering the 
city, his children were presented to him ; but Narcissus 
desired them to be removed. Vibidia then appeared, and 
required that he would not condemn his wife unheard. Nar- 
cissus replied that she should have an opportunity of defend- 
ing herself, and bade the Vestal meantime to go and attend 
to her sacred duties. 

Narcissus conducted Claudius to the house of Silius, that 
he might have ocular proof of his guilt. He thence took 
him to the camp, where Claudius, at his dictation, addressed 
a few words to the soldiers, who replied with a shout, calling 
for judgment on the guilty. Silius was brought before the 
tribunal ; he made no defence, and only prayed for a speedy 
death. His example was followed by several illustrious 
knights. The only case that caused any delay was that of 
the dancer Mnester, who pleaded the prince's command for 
what he had done. Claudius was dubious how to act ; but 
the freedmen urged that it would be folly to think of a player 
when so many noblemen were put to death, and that it mat- 
tered not whether he acted voluntarily or not in committing 
such a crime. Mnester also was therefore put to death. 

Messalina had returned to the gardens of Lucullus. She 
did not yet despair, if she could but get access to her husband. 
As Claudius, when he grew warm with wine at his dinner, 
desired some one to go tell that wretched woman (so he 
termed her) to be prepared to make her defence the next 
day, Narcissus saw that all was again at stake. He there- 
fore ran out, and told the tribune and centurions on guard 
that the emperor had ordered his wife to be put to death. 
They proceeded to the gardens of Lucullus, where they found 
her lymg on the ground, her mother Lepida, who in her 
prosperity had avoided her, sitting beside her, and persuading 



A, D. 48.] DEATH OF MESSALINA. 87 

her to take refuge in a voluntary death. The unfortunate 
woman's mind, however, was too much enervated by luxury 
for her to possess sufficient courage for such an act. The 
freedman who accompanied the officers having loaded her 
with abuse, she took a sword and made some ineffectual at- 
tempts to stab herself," the tribune then ran her through. 
Claudius, when informed of her fate, testified neither joy nor 
grief. By a decree of the senate, all memorials of Messalina 
were abolished, and the quaestorian ensigns were voted to 
Narcissus. 

The freedmen now had the task of selecting another wife 
for their feeble prince, who was not capable of leading a 
single life, and who was sure to be governed by the successful 
candidate. The principal women in Rome were ambitious 
of the honor of sharing the bed of the imperial idiot ; but 
the claims of all were forced to yield to those of Lollia 
Paulina, the former wife of Caius, Julia Agrippina, the 
daughter of Germanicus, and JElia Petina, Claudius's own 
divorced wife. The first was patronized by Callistus, the 
second by Pallas, the last by Narcissus. Agrippina, how- 
ever, in consequence of her frequent access to her uncle, 
easily triumphed over her rivals ; the only difficulty that pre- 
sented itself was that of a marriage between uncle and niece 
being contrary to Roman manners, and being even regarded 
as incestuous. This difficulty, however, the compliant L. 
Vitellius, who was then censor, undertook to remove. He 
addressed the senate, stating the necessity of a domestic 
partner to a prince who had on him such weighty public 
cares. He then launched forth in praise of Agrippina ; as 
to the objection of the nearness of kindred, such unions, he 
said, were practised among other nations, and, at one time, 
first cousins did not use to marry, which now they did so 
commonly. The servile assembly outran the speaker in 
zeal ; they rushed out of the house, and a promiscuous rab- 
ble collected, shouting that such was the wish of the Roman 
people. Claudius repaired to the senate-house, and caused 
a decree to be made legalizing marriages between uncles and 
nieces; and he then formally espoused Agrippina. Yet such 
was the light in which the incestuous union was viewed, 
that, corrupt as the Roman character was become, only two 
persons were found to follow the imperial example.* 

* The Church of Rome forbids both these marriages, but grants dis- 
pensations for them. In Popish countries, the marriages of uncle and 



88 CLAUDIUS. [a. d. 48-52. 

Agrippina also proposed to unite her son Domitius with 
Octavia, the daughter of Claudius; but here there was a 
difficulty also, for Octavia was betrothed to L. Silanus. 
Again, however, she found a ready tool in the base Vitellius, 
to whose son Junia Calvina, the sister of Silanus, had been 
married. As the brother and sister indulged their affection 
imprudently, though not improperly, the worthy censor took 
the occasion to make a charge of incest against Silanus, and 
to strike him out of the list of senators. Claudius then 
broke off the match, and Silanus put an end to himself on 
the very day of Agrippina's marriage. His sister was ban- 
ished, and Claudius ordered some ancient rites expiatory of 
incest to be performed, unconscious of the application of 
them which would be made to himself. 

The woman who had now obtained the government of 
Claudius and the Roman empire, was of a very different 
character from the abandoned Messalina. The latter had 
nothing noble about her ; she was the mere bondslave of lust, 
and cruel and avaricious only for its gratification ; but Agrip- 
pina was a woman of superior mind, though utterly devoid 
of principle. In her, lust was subservient to ambition ; it 
was the desire of power, or the fear of death, and not wanton- 
ness, that made her submit to the incestuous embraces of her 
brutal brother Caius, and to be prostituted to the companions 
of his vices. It was ambition and parental love that made 
her now form an incestuous union with her uncle. To 
neither of her husbands, Cn. Domitius or Crispus Passienus, 
does she appear to have been voluntarily unfaithful ; the bed 
of Claudius was, however, not fated to be unpolluted; for, as 
a means of advancing her views, Agrippina formed an illicit 
connection with Pallas, 

The great object of Agrippina was to exclude Britannicus, 
and obtain the succession for her own son, Nero Domitius, 
now a boy of twelve years of age. She therefore caused 
Octavia to be betrothed to him, and she had the philosopher 
Seneca recalled from Corsica, whither he had been exiled by 
the arts of Messalina, and committed to him the education of 
her son, that he might be fitted for empire. In the following 
year, (51,) Claudius, yielding to her influence, adopted him. 

In order to bring Nero forward, Agrippina caused him to 
assume the virile toga before the usual age, (52;) and the 

niece are common. The late queen of Portugal was married to her 
uncle ; the present has married two brothers in succession. 



A. D. 52-55.] AGRIPPINA. 89 

servile senate desired of Claudius that he might be consul at 
the age of twenty, and meantime be elect with proconsular 
power without the city. A donative was given to the sol- 
diers, and a congiary (congiarium) to the people, in his 
name. At the Circensian games, given to gain the people, 
Nero appeared in the triumphal habit; Britannicus, in a 
simple prcBtexta. Every one who showed any attachment to 
this poor youth, was removed, on one pretence or another, 
and he was surrounded with the creatures of Agrippina. 
Finally, as the two commanders of the guards were supposed 
to be attached to the interests of the children of Messalina, 
she persuaded Claudius that their discipline would be much 
improved if they were placed under one commander. Ac- 
cordingly, those officers were removed, and the command 
was given to Burrus Afranius, a man of high character for 
probity, and of great military reputation, and who knew to 
whom he was indebted for his elevation. 

The pride and haughtiness of Agrippina far transcended 
any thing that Rome had as yet witnessed in a woman. 
When (51) the British prince Caractacus and his family, 
whom P. Ostorius had sent captives to the emperor, were led 
before him, as he sat on his tribunal in the plain under the 
praetorian camp, with all the troops drawn out, Agrippina 
appeared, seated on another tribunal, as the partner of his 
power. And again, when (53) the letting off of the Fucine 
lake was celebrated with a naval combat, she presided with 
him, habited in a military cloak of cloth of gold. 

Agrippina at length (55) grew weary of delay, or fearful 
of discovery. Narcissus, who saw at what she was aiming, 
appeared resolved to exert all his influence in favor of Bri- 
tannicus ; and Claudius himself, one day, when he was 
drunk, was heard to say, that it was his fate to bear with the 
infamy of his wives, and then to punish it. He had also 
begun to show peculiar marks of affection for Britannicus. 
She therefore resolved to act without delay ; and, as Clau- 
dius, having become unwell, had retired to Sinuessa for 
change of air and the benefit of the waters, she proposed to 
take advantage of the opportunity thus presented. She pro- 
cured, from a woman named Locusta, infamous for her skill 
in poisoning, a poison of the most active nature. The eu- 
nuch Halotus, who was his taster, then infused it in a dish 
of mushrooms, a kind of food in which he delighted. The 
poison, however, acted violently on his bowels, and Agrippi- 
na, in dismay lest he should recover, made a physician who 
8* L 



90 NERO. 

was at hand introduce a poisoned feather into his throat, by 
way of making him discharge his stomach ; and in this man- 
ner the nefarious deed was completed. The death of Clau- 
dius was concealed till all the preparations for the succession 
of Nero should be made, and the fortunate hour marked by 
the astrologers be arrived. He then (Oct. 13) issued from 
the palace, accompanied by Burrus ; and, being cheered by 
the cohort which was on guard, he mounted a litter, and 
proceeded to the camp. He addressed the soldiers, prom- 
ising them a donative, and was saluted emperor. The senate 
and provinces acquiesced without a murmur in the will of 
the guards. 

Claudius was in his sixty-fourth year when he was poi- 
soned ; and he had reigned thirteen years and nine months, 
wanting a few days. 



CHAPTER VI.* 

NERO CLAUDIUS CiESAR. 

A. u. 808—821. A. D. 55—68. 

DECLINE OP AGRIPPINA's POWER. POISONING OF BRITANNICUS. 

— MURDER OF AGRIPPINA. NERO APPEARS ON THE STAGE. 

MURDER OF OCTAVIA. EXCESSES OF NERO. BURNING 

OF ROME. CONSPIRACY AGAINST NERO. DEATH OF SEN- 
ECA. DEATHS OF PETRONIUS, THRASEAS, AND SORANUS. 

NERO VISITS GREECE. GALEA PROCLAIMED EMPEROR. 

DEATH OF NERO. 

The new emperor t was only seventeen years of age. On 
account of his youth and his obligations to her, Agrippina 
hoped to enjoy the power of the state ; but Nero was not 
feeble-minded, like Claudius, and Seneca and Burrus were 
resolved to keep in check the influence of a haughty, unprin- 
cipled woman. All outward honors, however, were shown 
her. When the tribune, according to custom, asked the 
emperor for the word, he gave, ' My best Mother ; ' the sen- 

* Authorities : Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dion. 

t We shall henceforth employ thislerm. Its original meaning must 
be familiar to the reader. 



A. D. 56.J DECLINE OF AGRIPPINa's POWER. 91 

ate decreed her sundry privileges, but Burrus and Seneca 
checked her lust of blood. She had, however, caused Junius 
Silanus, the proconsul of Asia, to be poisoned for being of the 
imperial family, and she forced Narcissus to be his own exe- 
cutioner. When the senators were summoned to the palace 
on any affair of state, she used to stand behind the door cur- 
tain, that she might be present and share in the debate with- 
out being seen ; and when ambassadors came from Armenia, 
she was about to ascend the tribunal with her son, had not 
Seneca bidden the emperor to go and meet his mother ; and 
thus, by the show of filial duty, the disgrace to the majesty of 
Rome was avoided. 

All now was full of promise. The young emperor made 
speeches, the compositions of Seneca, replete with sentiments 
of clemency and justice. He declared that Augustus should 
be his model in government. He diminished the taxes, and 
reduced the rewards of informers to a fourth. When re- 
quired to sign the warrant for the execution of a criminal, 
"How I could wish," said he, "that I were ignorant of let- 
ters ! " He practised many popular arts, and acted in a char- 
acter easy to assume, but difficult to maintain if not prompted 
by nature. 

The power of Agrippina received its first shock (56) by 
the passion of her son for a freedwoman named Acte, a native 
of Asia, and, as he fain would have it. a descendant of the 
kings of Pergamus. His graver friends were willing to wink 
at this attachment, for, as he testified an aversion for his 
chaste and modest wife, Octavia, they thought it would be a 
means of keeping him from debauching women of rank. 
But the violent Agrippina at first set no bounds to her rage ; 
then, passing to the other extremes, she offered him her purse 
and her apartments for the gratification of his wishes. Nero 
and his friends, however, saw through her arts, and the plan 
for reducing her power was steadily pursued. Accordingly 
Pallas was now deprived of his office of treasurer. This again 
drove her furious; she menaced her son with setting up Bri- 
tannicus against him, declaring that she would take him to the 
camp, and, as the daughter of Germanicus, appeal to the sol- 
diers against her unworthy son. 

Nero now became alarmed; he knew of what his mother 
was capable, and a late incident * had shown him that Britan- 

* In the Saturnalia, when boys were, as usual, giving the kingdom 
by lot, it fell to Nero. As all were then bound to obey his commands, 



92 NERO. [a.d. 56. 

nicus was not without spirit, and was possessed of friends. He 
therefore resolved to remove him, and for this purpose had a 
poison procured from Locusta, and administered by those 
about the youth. It proved, however, too weak ; and the em- 
peror, sending for Locusta, beat her with his own hands, and 
made her prepare a stronger dose, of which he made trial on 
a kid and a pig, till he was satisfied of its efficacy. He then 
had it brought into the dining-room, and given in some cold 
water to Britannicus, as he sat at dinner. The unhappy youth 
dropped suddenly dead ; Nero said carelessly, that he had 
been subject to epilepsy from his infancy, and that he would 
soon recover, Agrippina was struck with terror and conster- 
nation, but did not venture to express them. Octavia, young 
as she was, had learned to conceal her feelings. So, after a 
brief interval of silence, the entertainment was resumed. The 
body of Britannicus was burnt that very night, the arrange- 
ments for it having been previously made. 

To stifle the memory of this atrocious deed, Nero be- 
stowed large gifts on the persons about him of most influ- 
ence. By many Seneca and Burrus were much blamed for 
accepting them, while others excused them by the plea of ne- 
cessity. Nothing, however, could soften Agrippina ; she em- 
braced Octavia; she held secret meetings with her friends; 
she collected money; she courted the officers of the guards; 
she treated the remaining nobility with great respect. Nero, 
in return, deprived her of the guard of honor which had been 
hitherto assigned her, appointed a different part of the palace 
for her residence, and never visited her without a party of 
centurions. 

The enemies of Agrippina were now imboldened to attack 
her life. Junia Silana,* who had been her intimate friend, 
irritated by her having been the means of depriving her of an 
advantageous match, caused two of her clients, named Iturius 
and Calvitius, to accuse her of a design to marry Rubellius 
Plaatus, who was related to Augustus in the same degree 
that Nero was, and to set him up as his rival for the empire. 
This information was communicated to Atimetus, a freed- 
man of Domitia, Nero's aunt, who also was at enmity with 

he ordered Britannicus to stand in the middle and sing a song. Bri- 
tannicus obeyed ; but the song he sang was one expressive of his own 
fate in being cast out from empire and his paternal seat. Tac. An. 
xiii. 15. It is probably to this play that Horace alludes, Ep. i. 1, 59. 
It is also the original of our Twelfth-day kings. 
* See above, p. 84. 



A. D. 56-59.] ATTACK ON AGRIPPINA. 93 

Agrippina ; and he urged Paris the actor, another of her freed- 
men, to go at once and inform the emperor of the danger that 
menaced him. Paris hastened to the palace. It was late at 
night when he arrived. Nero, who had been drinking freely, 
was dreadfully alarmed at this intelligence. In the first ac- 
cess of his terror, he would have had both his mother and 
Plautus put to death immediately ; but he was withheld for the 
present by the instances of Burrus. In the morning, Burrus, 
Seneca, and some of the freedmen, waited on Agrippina. 
She treated the charge with disdain, exposed its absurdity, 
and assigned the motives of its inventors. She insisted on 
being admitted to an audience of her son; and, when she saw 
him, she demanded, and she obtained, rewards for her friends, 
and venoreance on her enemies. Silana was exiled, Calvitius 
and Iturius were relegated, Atimetus was put to death; but 
Paris was too necessary to the pleasures of the prince to 
allow of his being punished; 

Pallas and Burrus were now accused of a design to set up 
Cornelius Sulla, the son-in-law of Claudius. But the charge 
was so manifestly absurd, that the accuser was sent into 
exile. A remarkable instance of the pride and insolence of 
Pallas appeared on this occasion; when the freedmen who 
were his confidants were named, he replied that in his house 
he always indicated his wishes by a nod or by a sign of his 
hand, or, if many things were to be expressed, he wrote them 
down, that he might not mingle his voice with those of his 
servants. 

Little of importance occurred at Rome during the three 
succeeding years. The matter of most note was the connec- 
tion which Nero formed (59) with a lady named Poppaea 
Sabina. This woman, who, as Tacitus remarks, possessed 
every thing but virtue, was at this time married to M. Salvius 
Otho, for whom she had quitted her former husband, Rufius 
Crispinus. Otho, who was one of Nero's greatest intimates, 
could not refrain from boasting frequently before him of the- 
beauty and elegance of his wife. Nero's desires were in- 
flamed ; he soon managed to become acquainted with Pop- 
paea ; and this artful woman pretended to be captivated with 
his beauty, but at the same time declared that she was strong- 
ly attached to Otho, on account of the noble and splendid life 
which he led, while Nero, the associate of the freedwoman 
Acte, could not be expected to be any thing but mean and 
servile. This line of conduct succeeded completely ; Nero 



94 NERO. [a. d. 59-60. 

became all her own, and Otho, that he might not be in the 
way of their amours, was sent out as governor of Lusitania. 

It was now that Agrippina was in real danger. Poppsea, 
whose power over her lover continually increased, knew that, 
as long as his mother lived, she could not hope to succeed in 
making him divorce Octavia and marry herself She there- 
fore had recourse to her usual arts, calling him a ward, tell- 
ing him that he did not possess freedom, much less empire ; 
and tauntingly asking him, was it on account of her noble an- 
cestors, or her beauty, or her fecundity, or her spirit, that he 
delayed espousing her, and so forth. 

Tacitus relates, on the authority of several writers, and of 
common fame, that Agrippina's desire for the retention of 
power was such, that she actually sought to seduce her son 
to the commission of incest ; and her design was only prevent- 
ed by Seneca's making Acte tell the prince that the fame of 
it was gone abroad, and that the soldiers would not submit to 
the rule of a profane prince. Others said that the guilty 
party was Nero himself, but that he was diverted from his de- 
sign by Acte, as just related. Nothing, we fear, is too bad to 
be believed of either mother or son. 

Be the truth as it may, Nero henceforth avoided all occa- 
sions of being alone with his mother ; and he secretly resolved 
on her death. The difficulty was how to accomplish it ; poi- 
son was out of the question against a woman of such cau- 
tion ; a violent death could not be concealed, and he also 
feared that he could get no one to attempt her life. At length 
Anicetus, a freedman who commanded the fleet at Misenum, 
proposed the expedient of a ship which should go to pieces. 
The prince embraced the idea,, and, as he was spending the 
festival of the Quinquatrus at Baise, (60,) he invited his 
mother, who was at Artium, to visit him there, saying that 
children should bear with the temper of their parents. He 
met her on the way, and conducted her to a villa named 
Bauli, on the sea-coast. Among the vessels lying there was 
one superior to the others, as if to do her honor. She was 
invited to proceed in it to Baiae ; but it is said that she had 
gotten warning, and therefore declined, and proceeded thither 
in her litter. The caresses of her son, however, dispelled her 
suspicions, if she had any; the banquet was prolonged into 
the night, and, when she rose to depart, the emperor attended 
her to the shore where she was to embark, and, as he was 
taking leave of her, he kissed her eyes and bosom repeatedly. 



A. D. 60.] MURDER OF AGRIPPINA. 95 

either the more completely to veil his purpose, or possibly 
from some remnants of the feelings of nature. 

The night was starlight — the sea was calm : Agrippina, 
attended only by Creperius Gallus and her maid Acerronia, 
went on board. The vessel had proceeded but a little way, 
when, as Creperius was standing near the helm, and Acerronia 
was reclining over the feet of her mistress, and congratulating 
her on the recent reconciliation, the deck, which was laden 
with lead, at a given signal came down on them : Creperius 
was killed on the spot ; the strength of the sides of the bed 
saved Agrippina and Acerronia ; the ship did not go to 
pieces, as intended. The rowers then attempted to sink it, 
by inclining it to one side, but did not succeed. Acerronia 
foolishly crying out that she was Agrippina, and calling to 
them to aid the mother of the prince, was despatched with 
blows of boat-hooks and oars. Agrippina, who preserved 
silence, only received a wound in the shoulder ; and she 
floated along till she was picked up by some small boats, 
and conveyed to her villa on the Lucrine lake. She now 
saw through the whole design of her impious son ; but, deem- 
ing it her wisest course to dissemble, she sent Agerinus, one 
of her freedmen, to inform him of the escape which the 
goodness of the gods had vouchsafed her, begging him not 
to come to visit her, as she required repose, 

Nero's consternation was extreme when he heard of her 
escape. He deemed that she would now set no bounds to 
her vengeance ; that she would arm her slaves, and appeal to 
the soldiers, the senate, and the people, against her parricidal 
son. He summoned Burrus and Seneca to advise him. They 
both maintained a long silence : at length Seneca, seeing 
that either Nero or Agrippina now must fall, looked at Bur- 
rus, and asked if a soldier should be ordered to slay her ? 
Burrus replied that the soldiers would not touch the issue of 
Germanicus, and added that it would be better for Anicetus 
to go through with what he had commenced. Nero was 
overjoyed when Anicetus declared his willingness. Just 
then Agerinus arrived ; and, as he was delivering his message, 
Nero cast a sword at his feet, and then caused him to be put 
in chains, that he might be able to say that his mother had 
sent her freedman to assassinate him, and had killed herself 
out of shame when she had failed in her design. 

When Anicetus arrived at Agrippina's villa, he dispersed 
the crowds which had assembled to congratulate her on her 
escape. He set a guard round the house, and then, with a 



96 NERO. [a. d. 60. 

captain of a galley and a centurion of the marines, entered 
her chamber, where she was waiting with extreme anxiety 
for intelligence. The only maid about her was leaving her : 
" Do you also desert me ? " said she ; and, looking around, 
she beheld Anicetus. She told him, if he came to see her, to 
say that she was recovered ; if to perform a crime, she would 
not believe that her son would command the murder of his 
mother. The captain struck her with a stick on the head ; 
as the centurion was drawing his sword, she showed her 
womb, crying out, '' Strike here : " she was then despatched 
with several wounds. Such was the termination of the guilty 
ambition of the highly-gifted daughter of Germanicus. It 
was said that she had long foreknown her fate ; for, having 
one time consulted the astrologers on the future fortunes of 
her son, they replied that he would reign, but that he would 
kill his mother. '' Let him kill me," cried she, " provided 
that he reigns." 

Some writers related that Nero came to view the dead 
body of his mother, and that he criticised the various parts, 
observing, on the whole, that he did not think she had been 
so handsome. Yet conscience asserted its rights : terrific 
dreams scared him from his couch ; the aspect of the smiling 
shores of the Bay of Baiae became gloomy to his view; 
imagination heard the wailing of trumpets from the place 
where the unhonored ashes of Agrippina lay. Though 
the officers of the guards, at the impulsion of Burrus, came 
to congratulate him on his escape from the treachery of 
his mother ; though his friends and the adjacent towns of 
Campania wearied heaven with thanksgivings, and the ob- 
sequious senate decreed supplications and honors of all kinds, 
his mind could not find rest, and for years he was haunted by 
the memory of his murdered parent. 

Nero went first to Naples, and, having remained sometime 
in Campania, dubious of the reception he might meet with 
at Rome, he was at length impelled by his flatterers to enter 
the city boldly. He did so, and found that he had had no 
just cause for alarm ; for senate and people alike, all ages 
and sexes, vied in servility and adulation. His entrance was 
like a triumph, and he ascended the Capitol and returned 
thanks to the gods. 

The restraint of his mother being removed, Nero now gave 
a free course to his idle or vicious propensities. He had 
always been fond of driving a chariot, and of singing to the 
lyre after his dinner, justifying it by the example of ancient 



A. D. 60-63.] NERO ON THE STAGE. 97 

kings and heroes, such as the Homeric Achilles. Seneca 
and Burrus thought it advisable to humor him in the former 
propensity, and a space was enclosed in the Vatican valley 
for his chariot driving. But he vi^as not contented till the 
people were admitted to witness and to applaud his skill. 
In order that the infamy of his exhibitions might be dimin- 
ished by diffusion, he obliged some of the noblest of both 
sexes to appear on the stage, the arena, and the circus. He 
also instituted games called Juvenalia, (from his then first 
shaving,) in which, in theatres erected in his gardens, he 
himself sang and danced ; and he forced the nobility of all 
ages and sexes, without any regard to the honors they had 
borne, to do the same. A lady, for example, named ^Elia 
Catella, rich and noble, and eighty years of age, was thus 
obliged to dance in public ! He finally appeared on the pub- 
lic stage; and the lord of the Roman world was seen to come 
forward, lyre in hand, wearing a long, trailing robe, and, hav- 
ing addressed the audience in the usual form, ("Gentlemen, 
hear me with favor," ) sing to his chords the story of Attis 
or the Bacchae. The officers of the guards stood around, 
Burrus grieving and applauding. He further selected five 
thousand young men, named Augustans, who were divided 
into companies, whose task was to applaud him when he was 
singing. 

The death of Burrus, (63,) which some ascribed to poison, 
removed another check from the vices of Nero. The com- 
mand of the guards was again divided ; Fenius Rufus, an 
honest but inactive officer, being joined in it with Sofonius 
Tigellinus, a man polluted by every vice, but whom similarity 
of manners had recommended to the favor of the prince. 
Seneca, finding his influence reduced by the death of Burrus, 
and himself marked as the object of attack by the base 
minions of the court, craved an. audience of the prince, and 
requested to be allowed to restore all the possessions which he 
had bestowed on him, and permitted to retire into the shades 
of private life. But Nero, accomplished in hypocrisy, made 
the most affectionate objections, would not hear of his retire- 
ment, and lavished caresses on him. Seneca returned thanks 
and retired ; but he altered his mode of life, and henceforth 
avoided publicity as much as possible. 

Cornelius Sulla and Rubellius Plautus, being both de- 
scended in the female line from Augustus, were objects of 
alarm to Nero ; he had therefore removed them from the 
city : the former resided in Gaul, the latter in Asia. But 

CONTIN. 9 M 



98 NEKo. [a. d. 63, 

Tigellinus, now pretending extreme solicitude for the safety 
of the prince^ and exaggerating the dangers to be apprehend- 
ed from those noblemen, obtained permission to murder 
them. Sulla therefore was slain as he was sitting at dinner 
at Marseilles, and Plautus as he was engaged in gymnic ex- 
ercises. Their heads were brought to Nero, who mocked 
at the first as gray before his time, and observed of the sec- 
ond, that he was not aware of his having had so large a nose. 
He, moreover, when he saw the head of Plautus, cried out, 
that now he might venture to put away Octavia, blameless 
and loved of the people as she was, and espouse his dear 
Poppsea. Accordingly, having informed the senate of the 
deaths of Sulla and Plautus, and finding that supplications 
and so forth were decreed without hesitation, he judged 
that he had nothing to apprehend from that spiritless as- 
sembly ; he therefore at once put away Octavia, on the pre- 
tence of sterility, and married Poppsea, who then attempted 
to convict Octavia of an intrigue with a flute-player named 
Eucerus. But the noble constancy of the greater part of 
that lady's female slaves, whom all the tortures of the rack 
could not induce to testify falsely against their mistress, de- 
feated the iniquitous project. The murmurs of the populace 
soon obliged Nero to take back Octavia, and the public joy 
was manifested in the most signal manner; the statues of 
Poppgea were flung down, and those of Octavia were carried 
about covered with flowers, and placed in the temples. 
Poppaea, now seriously alarmed for her safety, exerted all 
her influence over Nero ; and he obliged the notorious 
Anicetus to confess a criminal intercourse with Octavia. 
Pretending, then, that her object had been to gain over the 
fleet, he caused her to be confined in the fatal isle of Pan- 
dataria ; and a few days after, orders were sent for her death. 
The poor young woman, to whom, though only in her 
twenty-second year, life had ceased to yield any pleasure, 
still feared to die ; but she was bound, her veins were 
opened, and she was placed in a warm bath. When life 
was extinct, her head was cut off* and brought to Poppsea. 
Thanks to the gods were of course decreed by the senate.* 
The murder of Octavia was succeeded by the deaths (by 

* " Quod ad eum finem memoravimus," says Tacitus, " utquicumque 
casus temporum illorum, nobis vel aliis auctoribus, noscent, prsesump- 
tum habeant, quotiens fugas et coedes jussit princeps, totiens grates 
deis actas, quseque rerum secundarum dim turn publicae cladis insignia 
iuisse." 



A. D. 64-65.] NERO AT NAPLES. 99 

poison, as was believed) of Pallas and some of the other freed- 
men. The crime of Pallas was his detaining, by living too 
long, his immense wealth from the covetous prince. 

At length, (64,) to his excessive joy, Nero became a father, 
Poppsea being delivered of a daughter at Antium, the place of 
his own birth. The senate, who had already commended the 
womb of Poppaea to the gods, now decreed to her and the in- 
fant the title of Augusta ; supplications, temples, games, and 
all other honors, were voted ; and when the baby died, in its 
fourth month, it was deified by the obsequious and impious 
assembly, and a temple and priest were voted to it. 

Hitherto Nero had confined the exercise of his scenic pow- 
ers to his palace and gardens ; but he longed for a more am- 
ple field of display. He would not yet, however, venture to 
insult the prejudices and feelings of the people by appearing 
on the stage openly at Rome; and he therefore selected 
Naples, as a Grecian city, for the place in which he would 
make his dehut in public, intending then to pass over to 
Greece, and contend at all the great games of that country, 
and thus overcome the prejudices of the Romans. He ac- 
cordingly appeared, (65,) before a large audience, in the 
theatre of Naples ; and even the shock of an earthquake, 
which rocked the building, did not prevent him from finish- 
ing his piece. Instead, however, of proceeding directly to 
Greece, he returned to Rome, and there, declaring that his 
absence would not be long, he ascended the Capitol to pray 
to the gods for the success of his journey ; but when he en- 
tered the temple of Vesta, he was seized with a violent tremor 
in all his limbs, (the effect probably of the stings of con- 
science ;) and he gave up his design for the present, to the 
great joy of the populace, who feared a scarcity of corn in 
his absence . to the senate and nobles it was uncertain wheth- 
er his absence or his presence was the more to be dreaded. 

To prove to the people that he preferred Rome to all other 
places, he made the whole city, as it were, his house, and held 
his banquets in the public places. Historians have deemed 
one of these, given by Tigellinus, deserving of memory; [but 
the details are far too disgusting to be repeated. The in- 
famy to which Nero reduced himself was of the lowest and 
vilest kind,] 

Rome was at this time visited by a calamity worse than 
any that had befallen her since she was a city. On the 19th 
of July, a fire broke out in a part of the circus which was 
full of shops containing inflammable substances. The 



100 NERO. [a.d. 65. 

flames spread rapidly, the wind accelerating their career. 
It was not till the sixth day, that, by pulling down houses, 
the course of the conflagration was stopped at the foot of 
the Esquiline. The loss of lives and property was immense : 
of the fourteen quarters into which the city was divided, 
four only escaped ; three were totally destroyed, and of the 
other seven but little remained standing. 

Nero, who was at Antium, did not return till he heard 
that the flames were spreading to his palace; but when he 
arrived, he was unable to save it. He threw open his gardens, 
the Campus Martius, and the monuments of Agrippa to the 
sufferers ; he caused supplies of all kinds to be fetched from 
Antium and other places, and he reduced the price of corn 
considerably. All he could do, however, would not remove 
the suspicion that the city had been fired by his own orders. 
It was said that he longed for an opportunity of rebuilding it 
with more of regularity and beauty ; and it was asserted that, 
while the fire was raging, he ascended a tower in the gardens 
of Maecenas in his scenic dress, and, charmed with what 
he termed "the beauty of the flame," sang to his lyre The 
Taking of Ilium. He caused the Sibylline books to be con- 
sulted, and, in obedience to them, supplications to be made to 
various deities ; he spared no expense in the rebuilding of 
the city ; and when all would not avail to clear him, he laid 
the guilt on the innocent. The members of the society 
named Christians, which had arisen some years before in 
Judsea, were now numerous at Rome, From causes which 
we will hereafter assign, they were objects of general aver- 
sion, and any charge against them was likely to gain credit. 
Some of them were seized and forced to confess : on their 
evidence, a great multitude of others were taken and con- 
demned. They were put to death with torture and insult, 
some being sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then 
torn to pieces by dogs, some crucified, and others wrapped in 
pitch and other inflammable materials, and set on fire to serve 
for lamps in the night. The scene of their agonies was Ne- 
ro's gardens; and he, at the same time, to please the populace, 
gave Circensian games, driving about at Rome in the dress 
of a charioteer. Still the sufferers, though believed to be 
guilty of crimes, were pitied, as the victims of the real 
criminal. 

The city was rebuilt (at the heavy cost of Italy and the 
provinces) with more of regularity and beauty than it had ever 
before possessed. Many, however, complained of the width 



A. D. 66.1 CONSPIRACY AGAINST NERO. 101 

of the streets, as, when narrow, they had enjoyed more of 
shade and coolness. But the great object of Nero's ambition 
was to rebuild his palace on a scale of unexampled magnifi- 
cence. He had already extended it from the Palatine to the 
Esquiline ; and it was thence called the Transitory-house : the 
new one was named the Golden-house, from the quantity of 
gold and precious stones employed in it. It covered an im- 
mense extent of ground on the Palatine and Esquiline, con- 
taining within its bounds woods, plains, vineyards, ponds, 
with animals both wild and tame, and a great variety of 
buildings. The numerous dining-rooms were ceiled with 
ivory plates, which were movable, to shower down flowers, 
and perforated, to sprinkle odors on the guests. The prin- 
cipal one was round, and made to revolve day and night, in 
imitation of the world. The baths were supplied with 
water from the sea and from the river Albula. When the 
whole was completed, Nero observed that ctt length he had 
begun to dwell like a man. 

Men, however, were grown weary of being the objects of the 
tyrannic caprice of a profligate youth, and a widely-extended 
conspiracy to remove him and give the supreme power to C. 
Piso, a nobleman of many popular qualities, was organized, 
(66.) Men of all ranks, civil and military, were engaged in 
it, — senators, knights, tribunes, and centurions, — some, as is 
usual, on public, some on private grounds. While they were 
yet undecided where it were best to fall on Nero, a cour- 
tesan named Epicharis, who had a knowledge (it is not 
known how obtained) of the plot, wearied of their indecision, 
attempted to gain over the officers of the fleet at Misenum. 
She made the first trial of an officer named Volusius Proc- 
ulus, who had been one of the agents in the murder of 
Agrippina, and who complained of the ill return he had met 
with, and menaced revenge. She communicated to him the 
fact of there being a conspiracy, and proposed to him to join 
in it ; but Proculus, hoping to gain a reward by this new 
service, went and gave information to Nero. Epicharis was 
seized ; but as she had mentioned no names, and Proculus 
had no witnesses, nothing could be inade of the matter. She 
was, however, kept in prison. 

The conspirators became alarmed ; and, lest they should 
be betrayed, they resolved to delay acting no longer, but to 
fall on the tyrant at the Circensian games. The plan ar- 
ranged was, that Plautius Lateranus, the consul elect, a man 
of great courage and bodily strength, should sue to the em- 
9* 



]€2 NERO. [a. d. 66. 

peror for relief to his family affairs, and in so doing should 
grasp his knees and throw him down, and that then the of- 
ficers should despatch him with their swords. Meantime 
Piso should be waiting at the adjacent temple of Ceres ; and, 
when Nero was no more, the prsefect Fenius Rufus and 
others should come and convey him to the camp. 

Notwithstanding the number and variety of persons en- 
gaged in the plot, the secret had been kept with wonderful 
fidelity. Accident, however, revealed it as it was on the very 
eve of execution. Among the conspirators was a senator 
named Flavius Scevinus, who, though dissolved in luxury, was 
one of the most eager. He had insisted on having the first 
part in the assassination, for which purpose he had provided 
a dagger taken from a temple. The night before the attack 
was to be made, he gave this dagger to one of his freedmen, 
named Milichus, to grind and sharpen. He at the same time 
sealed his will, giving freedom to some, gifts to others of his 
slaves. He supped more luxuriously than usual; and, though 
he affected great cheerfulness, it was manifest from his air 
that he had something of importance on his mind. He also 
directed his freedman to prepare bandages for wounds. The 
freedman, who was either already in the secret, or had his 
suspicions now excited, consulted with his wife, and at her 
impulsion set off at daylight, and revealed his suspicions to 
Epaphroditus, one of Nero's freedmen, by whom he was 
conducted to the emperor. On his information, Scevinus 
was arrested ; but he gave a plausible explanation of every 
thing but the bandages, which he positively denied. He 
might have escaped, were it not that Milichus's wife suggested 
that Antonius Natalis had conversed a great deal with him 
in secret of late, and that they were both intimate with Piso. 
Natalis was then sent for, and, as he and Scevinus did not 
agree in their accounts of the conversation which they had, 
they were menaced with torture. Natalis's courage gave 
way; he named Piso and Seneca. Scevinus, either through 
weakness, or thinking that all was known, named several 
others, among whom were AnngBUS Lucanus, the poet, the 
nephew of Seneca, Tullius Senecio, and Afranius duinc- 
tianus. These at first denied every thing ; at length, on the 
promise of pardon, they discovered some of their nearest 
friends, Lucan even naming his own mother, Atilla. 

Nero now called to mind the information of Proculus, and 
he ordered Epicharis to be put to the torture. But no pain 
could overcome the constancy of the heroic woman ; and 



A. D. 66.] CONSPIRACY AGAINST NERO. 103 

next day, as, from her weak state, she was carried in a chair 
to undergo the torture anew, she contrived to fasten her belt 
to the arched back of the chair, and thus to strangle herself. 

When the discovery was first made, some of the bolder 
spirits urged Piso to hasten to the camp or to ascend the 
Rostra, and endeavor to excite the soldiers or the people to 
rise against Nero. But he had not energy for such a course, 
and he lingered at home till his house was surrounded by the 
soldiers sent to take him. He then opened his veins, leaving 
a will filled, for the sake of his wife, a profligate woman, 
with the grossest adulation of Nero. Lateranus died like a 
hero, with profound silence; and though the tribune who 
presided at the execution was one of the conspirators, he 
never reproached him. 

But the object of Nero's most deadly enmity was Seneca. 
All that was against this illustrious man was, that Natalis said 
that Piso had one time sent him to Seneca, who was ill, to 
see how he was, and to complain of his not admitting him, 
and that Seneca replied that " it was for the good of neither 
that they should meet frequently, but that his health depended 
on Piso's safety." The tribune Granius Silvanus (also one 
of the conspirators) was sent to Seneca, who was now at his 
villa, four miles from Rome, to examine him respecting the 
conversation with Natalis. He found him at table with 
his wife, Pompeia Paulina, and two of his friends. Seneca's 
account agreed with that of Natalis ; his meaning, he said, 
had been perfectly innocent. When the tribune made his 
report to Nero and his privy council, Poppsea and Tigellinus, 
he was asked if Seneca meditated a voluntary death. On his 
reply, that he showed no signs of fear or perturbation, he was 
ordered to go back and bid him die. Silvanus, it is said, 
called on Fenius on his way, and asked him if he should 
obey the orders ; but Fenius, with that want of spirit which 
was the ruin of them all, bade him obey. Silvanus, when 
he arrived, sent in a centurion with the fatal mandate. 

Seneca calmly called for his will, but the centurion would 
not suffer him to have it. He then told his friends that, as he 
could not express his sense of their merits in the way that he 
wished, he would leave them the image of his life, to which 
if they attended, they would obtain the fame of virtue and of 
constancy in friendship. He checked their tears, showing 
that nothing had occurred but what was to have been ex- 
pected. Then, embracing his wife, he began to console and 
fortify her ; but she declared her resolution to die with him. 



104 NERO. [a. D. 66» 

Not displeased at her generous devotion, and happy that one 
so dear to him should not remain exposed to injury and mis- 
fortune, he gave a ready consent, and the veins in the arms 
of both were opened. As Seneca, on account of his age, 
bled slovi^ly, he caused those of his legs and thighs to be 
opened also; and as he suffered very much, he persuaded his 
wife to go into another room; and then, calling for amanuen- 
ses, he dictated a discourse which was afterwards published. 
Finding himself going very slowly, he asked his friend, the 
physician. Statins Annocus, for the hemlock-juice which he 
had provided, and took it ; but it had no effect. He finally 
went into a warm bath, sprinkling, as he entered it, the ser- 
vants who were about him, and saying, " I pour this liquor to 
Jove the Liberator." The heat caused the blood to flow 
freely ; and his sufferings at length terminated. His body 
was burnt without any ceremony, according to the directions 
which he had given when at the height of his prosperity. 

Paulina did not die at this time ; for Nero, who had no en- 
mity against her, and wished to avoid the imputation of gratui- 
tous cruelty, sent orders to have her saved. She survived 
her husband a few years, her face and skin remaining of a 
deadly paleness, in consequence of her great loss of blood. 

The military men did not remain undiscovered. Fenius 
Rufus died like a coward; the tribunes and centurions, like 
soldiers. When one of them, named Subrius Flavius, was 
asked by Nero what caused him to forget his military oath, — 
" I hated you," said he ; " and there was none of the soldiers 
more faithful while you deserved to be loved. I began to 
hate you when you became the murderer of your mother and 
wife, a chariot-driver, a player, and an incendiary." Nothing 
in the whole affair cut Nero to the soul like this reply of the 
galhint soklier. 

The consul Vestinus was not implicated by any in the 
conspiracy ; but Nero hated him ; and, as he was sitting at 
dinner with his friends, some soldiers entered to say that their 
tribune wanted him. He arose, went into a chamber, had his 
veins opened, entered a warm bath, and died. Lucan, when or- 
dered to die, had his veins also opened ; when he felt his ex- 
tremities growinor cold, he called to mind some verses of his 
Pharsalia which were applicable to his case, and died re- 
peating them.* Senecio Quinctianus, and Scevinus, and 

* They are supposed by Lipsius to be iii. 638 — 646, by Vertianius, 
ix. 806 — 814. Lipsius is in our opinion right. 



A. D. 67.] DEATH OF POPPiEA. 105 

many others, died ; several were banished. Natalis, Milichus, 
and others, were rewarded ; offerings, thanksgivings, and so 
forth, were voted in abundantie by the senate. 

This obsequious body, however, sought to avert the dis- 
grace of the lord of the Roman world appearing on the stage 
at the approaching Quinquennial games, by offering him 
the victory of song and the crown of eloquence. But Nero 
said that there needed not the power nor the influence of 
the senate ; that he feared not his rivals, and relied on the 
equity of the judges. He therefore sang on the stage, and, 
when the people pressed him to display all his acquirements, 
he came forth in the theatre, strictly conforming to all the 
rules of his art, not sitting down when weary, wiping his 
face in his robe, neither spitting nor blowing his nose, and 
finally, with bended knee, and moving his hand, waited in 
counterfeit terror for the sentence of the judges. 

At the end of the games, he in a fit of anger gave Poppaea, 
who was pregnant, a kick in the stomach, which caused her 
death. Instead of burning her body, as was now the general 
custom, he had it embalmed with the most costly spices, and 
deposited in the monument of the Julian family. He him- 
self pronounced the funeral oration, in which he praised her 
for her beauty,* and for being the mother of a divine infant. 

The remainder of the year was marked by the deaths or 
exile of several illustrious persons, and by a pestilence which 
carried off great num.bers of all ranks and ages. " Of the 
knights and senators," observes Tacitus, " the deaths were 
less to be lamented ; they anticipated, as it were, by the com- 
mon fate, the cruelty of the prince." 

The first deaths of the succeeding year (67) were those 
of P. Anteius, whose crime was his wealth and the friend- 
ship of Agrippina; Ostorius Scapula, who had distinguished 
himself in Britain ; Annaeus Mella, the father of Lucan ; 
Anicius Cerealis, Rufius Crispinus, and others. They all 
died in the same manner, by opening their veins. The most 
remarkable death was that of C. Petronius, a man whose 
elegance and taste in luxury had recommended him to the 
special favor of Nero, who, regarding him as his * arbiter of 
elegance,' valued only that of which Petronius approved. 
The envy of Tigellinus being thus excited, he bribed one of 



* Poppasa was so solicitous about her beauty, that she used to bathe 
every day in the milk of 500 she-asses, which she kept for the purpose. 
Dion, Ixii. 28. 



lOB NERO. [a. d. 67. 

Petronius's slaves to charge his master with being the friend 
of Scevinus. His death followed, of course; the mode of it, 
however, was peculiar. He caused his veins to be opened, 
then closed, then opened again, and so on. He meantime 
went on conversing with his friends, not, like a Socrates or 
a Seneca, on the immortality of the soul or the opinions of 
the wise, but listening to light and wanton verses. He re- 
warded some of his slaves, he had others flogged, he dined, 
he slept ; he made, in short, his compulsive death as like a 
natural one as possible. He did not, like others, pay court 
to Nero or Tigellinus, or the men in power, in his will ; but 
he wrote an account of the vices and crimes of the prince 
and court, under the names of flagitious men and women, and 
sent it sealed up to the emperor. He broke his seal-ring, 
lest it might be used to the destruction of innocent persons. 

" After the slaughter of so many illustrious men," says 
Tacitus, "Nero at length sought to destroy virtue itself, by 
killing Thraseas Pgetus and Bareas Soranus." The former, 
a man of primitive Roman virtue, was hated by him not 
merely for his worth, but because he had, on various occa- 
sions, given public proof of his disapproval of his acts. Such 
were his going out of the senate-house when the decrees 
were made on account of the murder of Agrippina, and his 
absence from the deification and funeral of Poppaea. Further 
than his virtue, we know of no cause of enmity that Nero 
could have against Soranus. 

The accusers of Thraseas were Capito Cossutianus, whom 
he had made his enemy by supporting the Cilician deputies 
who came to accuse him of extortion, and Marcellus Eprius, 
a profligate man of eloquence. A Roman knight named 
Ostorius Sabinus appeared as the accuser of Soranus. The 
time selected for the destruction of these eminent men was 
that of the arrival of the Parthian prince Tiridates, who was 
coming to Rome to receive the diadem of Armenia, either 
in hopes that the domestic crime would be shrouded by the 
foreign glory, or, more probably, to give the Oriental an idea 
of the imperial power. Thraseas received an order not to 
appear among those who went to meet the king ; he wrote to 
Nero, requiring to know with what he was charged, and as- 
serting his ability to clear himself if he got an opportunity. 
Nero in reply said that he would convoke the senate. Thra- 
seas then consulted with his friends, whether he should go to 
the senate-house, or expect his doom at home. Opinions 
were, as usual, divided ; he, however, did not go to the senate. 



A. D. 67.] THRASEAS AND SORANUS. 107 

Next morning the temple in which the senate sat. was sur- 
rounded with soldiery. Cossutianus and Eprius appeared as 
the accusers of Thraseas, his son-in-law Helvidius Priscus, 
Paconius Agrippinus, and Curtius Montanus. The general 
charge against them was passive rather than active disloyalty, 
Thraseas being held forth as the seducer and encourager of 
the others. Ostorius then came forward and accused Sora- 
nus, who was present, of friendship with Rubellius Plautus, 
and of mal-conduct in the government of Asia. He added, 
that Servilia, the daughter of the accused, had given money 
to fortune-tellers. Servilia was summoned. She owned the 
truth — that she had sold her ornaments and given the money 
to the soothsayers, but for no impious purpose, only to learn 
if her father would escape. Witnesses were then called, and 
among them, to the indignation of every virtuous man, ap- 
peared P. Egnatius, the client and friend of Soranus, and a 
professor of the Stoic philosophy, who now had sold himself 
to destroy his benefactor by false testimony. 

The accused were all condemned, of course — Thraseas, 
Soranus, and Servilia, to death ; the others to exile. Of the 
circumstances of the end of Soranus and his daughter, we 
are not informed. Thraseas having prevented his wife, Arria, 
from following the example of her mother, of the same name, 
by entreating her not to deprive their daughter of her only 
remaining support, caused his veins to be opened in the 
usual manner ; and, as the blood spouted forth, he said to the 
quaestor who was present, " Let us pour out to Jove the 
Liberator. Regard this, young man. May the gods avert 
the omen ; but you have been born in times when it is ex- 
pedient to fortify the mind by examples of constancy." He 
died after suffering much pain. 

These sanguinary deeds were succeeded by the splendid 
ceremony of giving the diadem of Armenia to Tiridates. 
The scene was the Forum, which was filled during the night 
by the people arranged in order, wearing white togas and 
bearing laurel, while one part of it was occupied by the sol- 
diers brilliantly armed. The roofs of the houses also were 
thronged with spectators. At daybreak, Nero, in a triumphal 
robe, followed by the senate and his guards, entered the 
Forum, and took his seat on his tribunal. Tiridates and his 
attendants then advanced through the lines of soldiery. An 
immense shout was raised when he appeared ; he was filled 
with terror ; but, when silence was restored, he went forward 



108 NERO. [a. d. 61. 

and addressed the prince. Nero made a suitable reply, and, 
inviting him up, and making him sit at his foot, placed the 
diadem on his head, while the shouts of the multitude filled 
the air. 

This Tiridates was the brother of the Parthian king Volo- 
geses. In the first year of Nero's reign, as this prince had 
occupied the throne of Armenia, the conduct of the war, 
which it was resolved to undertake against him, was com- 
mitted to Domitius Corbulo, a man of great military talent 
and experience. The war, which was of the usual kind be- 
tween Europeans and Asiatics, in which the advantage of 
skill and discipline is on the side of the former, that of num- 
bers and knowledge of the country on that of the latter, had 
been carried on with various success, till at length an ar- 
rangement was effected by Corbulo's agreeing that Tiridates 
should be king of Armenia on condition of his acknowledaino- 

... o o 

the supremacy of Rome, and receiving his diadem from the 
hands of the emperor. 

Nothing of importance occurred in the time of Nero on 
the frontiers of the Rhine and Danube. In Britain, Sue- 
tonius Paulinus conquered the isle of Mona, the great seat 
of the Druidic religion ; and a war headed by Boadicea, 
queen of the Icenians, which commenced by the massacre 
of two Roman colonies, was terminated, with a prodigious 
slaughter of the Britons. 

At length Nero put his long-cherished design of visiting 
Greece into execution. Leaving his freedman Helius with 
unlimited power in Rome, he crossed the Adriatic at the 
head of a body of men, numerous enough, as to mere num- 
bers, it was said, to conquer the Parthians; but of whom the 
greater part were armed with lyres, masks, and theatric bus- 
kins. He contended at all the games of Greece; for he made 
them all be celebrated in the one year. When contending, 
he rigidly followed all the rules and practices of the citharoe- 
dic art ; he addressed the judges with fear and reverence ; he 
openly abused or secretly maligned his rivals. The Greeks, 
adepts in flattery, bestowed on him all the prizes ; and even 
when, at the Olympic games, he attempted to drive ten-in- 
hand, and was thrown from the chariot, he still was pro- 
claimed victor. In return, he bestowed liberty on the whole 
province, and gave the judges the rights of citizenship and a 
large sum of money. This, in imitation of Flamininus, he 
himself proclaimed aloud from the middle of the stadium at 



A. D. 67.] NERO IN GREECE. 109 

the Isthmian games. These amusements, however, gave no 
check to the cruehy and rapacity of himself and Tigellinus. 
Greece was plundered as by an enemy ; numbers were put to 
death for their property ; many persons were even summoned 
thither from Italy and other parts for the sole purpose of be- 
ing executed. Among these was the gallant Corbulo, whom 
Nero lured thither by the most hypocritical expressions of 
affection, and ordered to be slain as soon as he landed. 
Corbulo took a sword, and plunged it into his body, crying, 
" I deserve it." 

While in Greece, Nero celebrated another marriage. The 
bride, on this occasion, was a youth named Sporus, who, it is 
said, bore some resemblance to Poppaea. Having emascu- 
lated him, and essayed all the powers of art to convert him 
into a woman, he espoused him with the most solemn forms, 
Tigellinus actincr as the bride's father on the occasion. He 
henceforth had him dressed as his empress, and carried about 
with him in a litter. Some one observed that " it had been 
well for the world if his father Domitius had had such a 
wife." He also, while in Greece, attempted to dig a canal 
through the Isthmus, for which purpose he assembled a great 
number of workmen from all parts. When, from supersti- 
tious motives, they hesitated to touch the ground which was 
sacred to the sea-god, he took a spade, and set them the ex- 
ample himself. The project, however, owing to subsequent 
events, came to nothing. 

Helius had for some time been urging the emperor by 
letters to return to Rome, on account of the aspect of affairs 
there. Finding his letters unheeded, he came over in per- 
son ; and, on his representations, Nero saw the necessity of 
leaving Greece. When he landed in Italy, he proceeded to 
Naples, the scene of his first musical glory. He entered it 
in a chariot drawn by white horses, and through a breach in 
the walls, as was the custom of victors in the public games. 
He did the same at Antium, Albanum, and Rome itself. He 
entered this last city in the triumphal car of Augustus, in a 
purple robe studded with silver stars, the Olympic wreath of 
wild olive on his head, the Pythian laurel in his hand. The 
crowns which he had won, and boards showing the names 
and forms of the places where he had gained them, preceded 
his chariot ; the senate, knights, and soldiers, followed, shout- 
ing, " Olympic victor ! Pythian victor ! Augustus ! Nero Her- 
cules ! Nero Apollo ! " and such like. In this manner he 

CONTIN. 10 



no NERO. [a.d. 68. 

proceeded to the Capitol, and thence to the palace. The 
crowns, eighteen hundred in number, were hung round an 
Egyptian obelisk. Nero then resumed his former occupa- 
tions as a player and charioteer. 

The Roman world had thus long submitted to be the sport 
of a monster in human form ; but the day of vengeance was 
at hand. We are ill-informed of the circumstances and na- 
ture of the revolt against him, (68;) we are only told that 
its author was C. Julius Vindex, a man of high birth in 
Aquitanian Gaul, whose father had been a Roman senator, 
and who was himself at this time propraetor of Gaul. As the 
people were harassed beyond endurance by exactions, he 
proposed to them to have recourse to arms, and deprive the 
unworthy wretch, under whose tyranny they groaned, of the 
power to oppress the Roman world any longer. Vindex was 
too prudent a man to set himself up as the rival of Nero; he 
proposed that the empire should be offered to Ser. Sulpicius 
Galba, the governor of Tarragonian Spain, a man of high 
character, of much military experience, and who was at the 
head of a large army. Deputies w^ere accordingly sent to 
Galba, to whom Vindex also wrote, strongly urging him to 
become the deliverer and leader of the human race. Galba, 
who had discovered that Nero had resolved on his death, and 
whom favorable signs and omens encouraged, called his sol- 
diers together, and, placing before his tribunal the images of 
a great number of persons whom Nero had put to death, de- 
plored the condition of the times. The soldiers instantly 
saluted him emperor ; he, however, cautiously professed him- 
self to be merely the legate of the Roman senate and peo- 
ple, and forthwith commenced his levies. He formed a kind 
of senate of the leading persons in the country, and selected 
a body of youths of the equestrian order to act as his body- 
guard. 

Meantime Verginius Rufus, who commanded m Germany, 
when he heard of the insurrection in Gaul, advanced and 
laid siege to Besancon. Vindex came to its relief, and, 
having encamped at a little distance, he and Verginius had a 
private meeting, in which it was suspected that they agreed 
to unite against Nero; but, shortly after, as Vindex was lead- 
ing his forces toward the town, the Roman legions, attack- 
ing them without orders, as was said, slew 20,000 of them. 
Vindex also fell by their swords, or, as was more gener- 
ally believed, by his own hand. The soldiers would fain 



A. D. 68.] INSURRECTION OF VINDEX. Ill 

have saluted Verginius emperor; but that noble-minded man 
steadfastly refused the honor, affirming that the senate and 
people alone had a right to confer it.* 

Nero was at Naples when intelligence reached him of the 
insurrection in Gaul. He made so light of it, that some 
thought he was rejoiced at the occasion which it was likely 
to offer for plundering . those wealthy provinces. During 
eight days he took his ordinary amusements. At length, 
stung by the contumelious edicts of Vindex, he wrote to the 
senate, excusing his absence on account of the soreness of 
his throat, as if, observes the historian, he was to have sung 
for them; and when he came to Rome, he assembled the 
principal men of both orders, but, instead of deliberating 
with them on the affairs of Gaul, he spent the time in ex- 
plaining some improvements which he had made in the hy- 
draulic organ, adding that he would shortly produce it in the 
theatre, if Vindex would allow him. 

When, however, he heard of the revolt of Galba and the 
Spains, his consternation was extreme. He revolved, it is 
said, the wildest and most nefarious projects, such as sending 
persons to kill all the governors of provinces, massacring the 
exiles and all the Gauls that were at Rome, poisoning the 
senate, setting fire to the city, and letting the wild beasts 
loose on the people. He began to levy troops ; but his first 
care was to provide carriages to convey his theatric proper- 
ties, and to dress and arm a party of his concubines as Ama- 
zons to form his guard. The urban cohorts having refused 
to serve, he called on all masters to furnish a certain number 
of their slaves, and he took care to select the most valuable, 
not even excepting the stewards or amanuenses. He likewise 
required all persons to give him a part of their property. 

Intelligence of further revolts having reached him as he 
was at dinner, he overturned, in his terror, the table, and broke 
his two precious Homeric cups, as they were named, from 
the scenes from Homer which were carved on them. Taking 
then with him in a golden box some poison prepared for him 
by Locusta, he went to the Servilian gardens, and sent some 
of his most faithful freedmen to Ostia to get shipping ready. 
He then tried to prevail on the officers of the guards to ac- 
company his flight ; but some excused themselves, others re- 

* Verginius caused the following lines to be placed on his tomb, (Plin, 
Ep, yi. 10. :) " Hie situs est Rufus, pulso qui Vindice quondam, 
Imperium asseruit non sibi, sed patriae," 



112 NERQ. [a. D. 68. 

fused, and one even repeated the line of Virgil, Usque adeo- 
iie mori miserum est 1 One time he thought of flying to 
the Parthians, another time to Galba, then of ascending the 
Rostra, and asking public pardon for his transgressions, and 
praj'ing for even the government of Egypt. He retired to 
rest; but, awaking in the middle of the night, and finding 
that his guards had left him, he sprang up and sent for some 
of his friends. When none came, he arose, and went to 
some of their houses ; but every door was closed against him. 
On his return, he found his bed-chamber pillaged, and his box 
of poison gone. He sought in vain for some one to kill him, 
"Have I neither a friend nor an enemy?" cried he, and 
rushed to the Tiber, to throw himself into it. His courage, 
however, failed him ; and his freedman Phaon having oifered a 
country-house which he had four miles from the city for a 
retreat, he mounted a horse, and set out with Sporus and 
three others, concealed in a dark cloak, with his head covered 
and a handkerchief before his face. As he was quitting the 
city, the ground seemed to rock beneath him, and a broad 
flash of lightning struck terror to his heart ; and, as he passed 
the praetorian camp, his ears were assailed by the shouts 
of the soldiers execratinor him and wishinor success to Gal- 
ba. *' There they go in pursuit of Nero," observed one of 
those whom they met; another inquired of them if there was 
any news of Nero in the city. His horse starting in the 
road, his handkerchief fell, and he was recognized and salu- 
ted by a prtetorian soldier. They had to quit their horses 
and scramble throuo;h a thicket to get to the rear of Phaon's 
villa, and then to wait till an aperture was made in the wall 
to admit them. Phaon urged him to conceal himself, mean- 
time, in a sand hole ; but he replied that he would not bury 
himself alive, and, taking some water up in his hand from a 
pool to quench his thirst, he said, " This is Nero's prepared 
water." * He then picked the thorns out of his cloak, and, 
when the aperture was completed, he crept through it, and lay 
down on a miserable pallet in a slave's cell. Though suffer- 
ing from hunger, he would not eat the coarse bread that was 
offered him ; but he drank some warm water. 

Every one now urged him to lose no time in saving him- 
self from the impending insults. He directed them to dig a 

* Dccocta. Nero is said to have introduced the practice of boihng 
water and then cooling it in snow to give it a greater degree of cold. 
Fhn. xN. H. xxxi. 3. 



A. D. 68.] DEATH OF NERO. 113 

grave on the spot, and to prepare the requisite water and 
wood for his funeral : meantime he continued weeping and 
saying, " What an artist is lost ! " A messenger coming 
with letters to Phaon, he took them, and, reading that he was 
declared an enemy by the senate, and sentenced to be pun- 
ished more majorum, he inquired what that meant. Being 
told that it was to be stripped naked, have the head placed 
in a fork, and be scourged to death, he took two daggers he 
had with him, and tried their edge, then sheathed them 
again, saying that the fatal hour was not yet come. One 
moment he desired Sporus to begin the funeral wail, then he 
called on some one to set him an example of dying, then 
he upbraided his own cowardice. At length, hearing the 
trampling of the horses of those sent to take him, he hur- 
riedly repeated an appropriate line of Homer, and, placing a 
dagger at his throat, with the aid of his secretary Epaphro- 
ditus, drove it in, A centurion, entering before he was dead, 
put his cloak to the wound, pretending that he was come to 
his aid. " 'Tis too late! Is this your fidelity?" said the 
bleeding tyrant, and expired. 

Such was the well-merited end of the emperor Nero, in the 
3lst year of his age and the 14th of his reign. We have not 
ventured to pollute our pages with the appalling details of 
his lusts and vices, which historians have transmitted to us; 
for by so doing we should injure rather than serve the cause 
of moral purity and of virtue. Monster as he was, the pop- 
ulace and the praetorian soldiery, missing the gifts and the 
shows which he used to bestow on them, soon began to re- 
gret him ; and for many years his tomb continued to be vis- 
ited and his memory to be held in honor. No more con- 
vincing proof could be given of the utter degradation of the 
Roman people. 



On looking through the reigns of the four immediate suc- 
cessors of Augustus, one cannot fail to be struck with the 
singular failure of all the projects of that prince for securing 
the happiness of the Roman world. It can hardly be regard- 
ed as fortuitous that such monsters should have attained to 
unlimited power ; and those should not be regarded as super- 
stitious who see in this event a fulfilment of that great law of 
the moral world, the visitation on the children of the sins 
10* o 



114 NERO. 

and errors of the parents. The Roman nobles had, in the 
last century of the republic, robbed and oppressed the people 
of the provinces in the most nefarious manner, and by their 
civil contentions at home they had demoralized the people 
and caused the downfall of public liberty ; their descendants 
were therefore the victims of the most capricious and mer- 
ciless tyranny, against which virtue or innocence was no se- 
curity. For we may observe that, with slight exceptions, it 
was solely against the noble and wealthy that the cruelties 
of the emperors were directed. 

The whole of the people of Rome, nobles and plebeians 
alike, were debased and degraded. Though we may not 
place implicit faith in the exaggerated statements of the de- 
claimers and satirists of the time, we must yet recognize the 
foundation of truth on which their exaggerations rest. The 
nobles were sunk in luxury and sensuality to a degree rarely 
equalled. Vice, unrestrained by that regard to appearance 
and public opinion which acts as so salutary a check in 
modern times, reigned in their splendid mansions, and boldly 
affronted the public view. But all were not equally debased. 
In the history of the time, we meet with many splendid ex- 
amples of virtue ; and, had we the records of private life, we 
should probably find much to flatter our more exalted views 
of human nature. They, in general, cultivated literature. 
The rigid precepts of the Stoic doctrine were adopted by 
those of more lofty aspirations, while the votaries of sensual 
enjoyment professed the degenerated system of Epicurus. 

The common people, now degenerated into mere lazza- 
roni, living on the bounty or charity of the sovereign, and 
utterly destitute of even the semblance of political power, 
thought only of the public games,* and contended with more 
passion for the success of the blue or green faction of the 
Circus than their forefathers had shown for the elevation of 
a Scipio or a Marius to the highest dignities of the state. 
They were also completely brutalized by the constant view 
of the slaughter of gladiators, the combats of men with the 
wild beasts to which they were exposed, and the massacre of 
animals, many brought for the purpose from the most distant 
regions, in the amphitheatre. For such were the amuse- 

* " Ex quo siifFragia nulli 
Vendimus efFudit curas; nam qui dabatolim 
Imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se 
Continet, atque duas tantuni res anxius optat^ 
Panem et Circenses." Juv. Sat. x. 77. 



STATE OF THE EMPIRE. 115 

ments with which the emperors, continuing in truth only the 
usage of the commonwealth, sought to gratify the populace 
of Rome. 

The fine rural population of Italy, the hardy yeomanry and 
stout farm laborers, whose vigor and courage had won the 
victories which gave Rome her empire, had been greatly di- 
minished. Tillage had ceased in a great measure ; and Italy, 
divided into huge estates, the latifundia of the nobles, con- 
tained only vineyards, oliveyards, pastures, and forests, in 
which all the labor was performed by gangs of slaves. The 
corn which was to relieve the wants of the imperial city was 
all supplied by Africa and Egypt; the existence of the Ro- 
man people was at the mercy of the winds, and any one who 
could obtain the possession of Egypt could starve the capi- 
tal. In every point of view, this policy was bad; it should 
be the object of every prudent government to maintain a 
sound agricultural population. 

Literature had greatly declined after the time of Augustus. 
The only historian of any note remaining from this period is 
C. Velleius Paterculus, an agreeable and ingenious writer, 
but the abject flatterer of the tyrant Tiberius. The philo- 
sophic writings of Seneca display a pure morality, conveyed 
in a style affected and epigrammatic, which, attractive from 
its very faults, operated very injuriously on the literature of 
the age. Of the actions of Seneca we have had occasion to 
speak in the preceding pages; and it is clear that his life 
did not strictly correspond with the high-strained principles 
of the Stoic philosophy which he professed. He is accused 
by Dion of having caused the insurrection of the Britons, in 
the reign of Nero, by his avarice; and that historian hints 
that the charge of adultery against him was not without 
foundation. On the other hand, Tacitus always speaks of 
him with great respect. Seneca, in effect, as he himself fre- 
quently confesses, had the failings of a man : he was rich ; he 
increased his wealth in the ordinary Roman manner, by put- 
ting his money out at interest in the provinces ; he lived in a 
splendid manner; but he was moderate and temperate in his 
habits, and kind and amiable in all the relations of private 
life, and we should not hesitate to regard him as a good man. 
The unfortunate circumstances under which he was placed 
with respect to his imperial pupil, may plead his excuse for 
such of his public acts as are morally objectionable. 

Of the poets of this period we possess only two, M. 
Annaeus Lucanus, the nephew of Seneca, and A. Persius 



116 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

Flaccus. Both of these poets embraced the Stoic philoso- 
phy, and both died young. Lucan, following the example of 
Ennius, sought the materials of a narrative poem in the his- 
tory of Rome. But his subject, the war between CjBsar and 
Pompeius, was too recent an event, and the poet was there- 
fore impeded in his efforts by the restrictions of truth. The 
Pharsalia, consequently, though full of vigor and spirit, is 
rhetorical rather than poetical ; and we meet in it the severe 
truths of history, and the strict precepts of philosophy, instead 
of the beguiling illusions of fiction, the proper ornaments 
of poetry. 

Persius has left six satires, written in a tone of pure and 
elevated morality, but in a harsh, rugged style. Horace was 
the great object of his admiration ; but no contrast can be 
greater than that which the style and manner of their respec- 
tive compositions present. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

THE JEWISH MESSIAH. JESUS CHRIST. HIS RELIGION. ITS 

PROPAGATION. CAUSES OF ITS SUCCESS. CHURCH GOV- 
ERNMENT. 

While such was the condition of the Roman empire under 
the successors of Augustus, the religion which was to super- 
sede the various systems of polytheism in Europe and a part 
of Asia, was secretly and noiselessly progressing, and making 
converts in all parts of the Roman dominions. 

The inspired books of the Jews in many places spoke of 
a mighty prince of that nation, named the Messiah, i. e. the 
Anointed-one, who would rule over all mankind in justice 
and equity, and exalt his own peculiar people to an extraor- 
dinary degree of power and preeminence. He was to be 
born of the line of their ancient sovereigns of the house of 
David ; and the interpreters of the prophetic writings had 
fixed the time of his advent to a period coinciding with the 
reign of Augustus. Interpreting their prophecies in a literal 
sense, they viewed the promised Deliverer as a great temporal 



JESIJS CHRIST. 117 

prince, who would wrest the supremacy of the world from 
Rome, and confer it on Judsea ; and the whole Jewish people 
were looking forward with hope and exultation to the predes- 
tined triumph of their arms and their creed. 

The promised Saviour came at the appointed time, but 
under a widely different character from what the expounders 
of the Law and the Prophets had announced. His mother, 
an humble maiden of the house of David, the wife of a car- 
penter in one of the towns of Galilee, brought him forth at 
Bethlehem, the city of David. He grew up in privacy and 
obscurity; at the age of thirty he entered on his destined of- 
fice as a teacher of mankind ; by many wonderful works, he 
proved his mission to be from on high, and himself to be the 
promised Messiah, whose triumph was to be over sin and the 
powers of darkness, and not over the arms of Rome. Many, 
struck by his miraculous powers, and won by the beauty and 
sublimity of his doctrines, and their accordance with the 
writings of the prophets of Israel, became his followers; but 
a mild and beneficent system of religion was distasteful to 
the nation in general ; the heads of the Jewish religion grew 
alarmed for their own power and influence ; they therefore 
resolved on his destruction ; and they forced the Roman gov- 
ernor to condemn him to death as a spreader of sedition 
against the Roman authority. The death which the Son of 
God endured was that of the cross, (the usual mode at the 
time ;) but, as he had foretold to his disciples, he rose from 
the dead on the third day, and, after an abode of forty days 
on the earth, he ascended, in their view, to heaven, leaving 
them a charge to disseminate his religion throughout the 
whole world. 

None, we should suppose, require to be told what is the 
religion of Jesus Christ. All must know that its essence 
is the love of God and the love of man, that it inculcates 
every virtue, teaches to shun all evil, promises to the good 
eternal bliss, and menaces the wicked with eternal misery, in 
a future state of existence. So lovely is it, so mild, peaceful, 
and beneficent is its character, that, were its precepts gener- 
ally, though but imperfectly, obeyed, even the present world 
would become a paradise. We speak of the religion which 
is contained in the sacred books of the New Testament, in 
the words of Christ himself and his apostles, and not of the 
corrupted system which grew up and usurped its place, the 
progress of which it will be our task to relate. There is 
perhaps no moral phenomenon so extraordinary as the 



118 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

change of the purity and simplicity of the gospel into the 
polytheism and idolatry which afterwards assumed the name 
and office of Christianity ; yet, as will appear, it is a phe- 
nomenon not difficult of explanation. 

The religion of Christ was founded on that of Moses ; but 
while the latter was limited to one people and one country, 
and burdened with a wearisome ceremonial, and many peculi- 
arities about meats and drinks, and such like, the former, un- 
limited and unencumbered, was adapted to all parts of the 
earth, and suited to all those who had capacity to understand 
and follow its precepts. Its Divine Author therefore directed 
his disciples to preach it to all nations; and so bold and ener- 
getic were they in the performance of their commission, and 
so powerfully were they aided by the Divine Spirit which 
was promised them, that the religion was in the space of a 
few years diffused throughout the greater part of the Roman 
empire. 

The first societies of the Christians (named churches *) 
were necessarily in Judsea, and the principal one at Jeru- 
salem, where the apostles or original companions of Christ 
chiefly resided. Gradually, by means of missionaries, the doc- 
trine was spread beyond the limits of Judaea, and churches 
were established at Damascus, Antioch, and other towns. 
The most powerful and effective of these missionaries was 
Saul, (or, as he was afterwards named, Paul,) who had been 
originally a persecutor of the church, but, being converted by 
miracle, as he was on his road to Damascus, became a most 
zealous preacher of the truth which he had opposed. To 
zeal and ardor he united the advantages of learning and 
eloquence ; he was versed in the literature of his own nation 
and of the Greeks, and was thus eminently qualified for the 
office assigned him, of being the apostle of the Gentiles. By 
means chiefly of this eminent man, within the space of five- 
and-twenty years from the death of Christ, churches had 
been formed in the principal towns of Syria, Asia Minor, 
Macedonia, Greece, and even in the city of Rome. 

The mode in which Paul and the other missionaries pro- 
ceeded was as follows : The Jews were now (for the pur- 
poses of traffic, it would appear) established in most of the 
great towns of the Roman empire ; and wherever they were, 

* The term employed in the New Testament is IxxXriaia^ " assem- 
bly," Church is usual!)' derived from the phrase 6 rov xvqiov oixog., 
" the Lord's House," which was also employed to designate the be- 
lievers in Christ. 



ITS PROPAGATION. 119 

they had their synagogues or places of worship. On arriving 
at any town, therefore, Paul, (to take him for an example,) as 
being a Jew, used to enter the synagogue on the Sabbath day, 
where, taking advantage of the custom which prevailed in the 
synagogues, of inviting any persons who seemed inclined to 
address the congregation,* he undertook to prove to them 
that Jesus was the long-promised Messiah. If the Jews were 
convinced and believed, they became the nucleus of a church; 
if they did not, (as was more generally the case,) the apostle 
" turned to the Gentiles," that is, preached the gospel to the 
heathen, or the followers of the worship of false gods. The 
church of each town was usually composed of converts from 
among both Jews and Gentiles, but chiefly of the latter, the 
Jews being in general the implacable enemies of the religion 
which was to supersede their own, and which disappointed 
all their lofty anticipations. 

In the moral as in the natural world, there is no effect 
without a preceding cause; no change is produced without 
a due preparation of circumstances. We may therefore in- 
quire, without presumption, what were the circumstances that 
favored the rapid progress of the Christian religion. 

The able historian of The Decline and Fall of the Roman 
Empire assigns five causes for this great effect, namely, the 
zeal of the Christians — the doctrine of a future life — the 
miraculous powers ascribed to the church — the pure and aus- 
tere morals of the Christians — and the union and discipline 
of the Christian republic. In his examination of each of 
these causes and its effects, he exerts all his powers of sneer 
and irony to throw discredit on the early Christians, to repre- 
sent them as weak dupes or artful impostors, and their reli- 
gion as no more divine than those of Greece and Italy. We 
shall endeavor to examine them in a different spirit. 

The first of the causes assigned by the historian is doubt- 
less a true one. Without zeal, no system of philosophy, far 
less of religion, will ever make rapid progress in the world. 
The second cause is also true. The doctrine of a future 
state, as taught by the apostles, had in it a degree of purity, 
determinateness, and certainty, unattainable by the polytheism 
of the heathen, and which foimed no part of the law given to 
the Jews by Moses. But we must not suppose, as the his- 



* " And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of 
the synagogue sent unto them, saying : Ye men and brethren, if ye 
have any word of exhortation for the people, say on." Acts xiii. 15. 



120 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

torian would have us, that a future state was not believed 
generally at that time by the Greeks and Romans. The 
philosophers and men of education, doubtless, disgusted by 
the absurd details of the future world, furnished by poets and 
adopted in the popular creed, and finding no demonstrative 
arguments for a future existence, had reasoned themselves 
into skepticism on the subject, and the doctrine therefore had 
little or no effect on their lives and conduct ; but the vulgar 
still clung pertinaciously to the faith transmitted to them by 
their forefathers, and believed the poetic creed of the future 
world with all its incongruities.* The religious aspect of 
the Roman world at that time in fact very much resembled 
that of Catholic Europe at the present day; the popular re- 
ligion was a mass of absurdities revolting to the understand- 
ing ; the men of education rejected it, and were skeptics or 
infidels ; while the vulgar lay grovelling in idolatry and super- 
stition. 

The historian's third cause — the miraculous powers of the 
church — is the one liable to most dispute. The infidel to- 
tally denies their reality; the believer is convinced of their 
truth. On this point no a priori arguments should be ad- 
mitted ; the inquirer should, for example, give no heed to 
reasonings from the steadiness and regularity of the course 
of nature, for we know not what that course is, and whether 
the effects which, as beinor unusual, we denominate miracu- 
lous or wonderful, may not form a part of it, and have been 
arranged so as to coincide in point of time with the promul- 
gation of certain moral principles. The whole is in effect a 
question of evidence, and those who find the proofs offered 
for the authenticity of the New Testament convincing, must 
acknowledge that the promise of divine aid made by Jesus 
to his disciples was fulfilled, and that the Holy Spirit enabled 
them to perform many wonderful works.t At the same time, 

* In Lucian (De Luctu 2) will be found a proof of the tenacity with 
which the vulgar adhered to the traditional creed. The chief cause of 
Gibbon's error seems to have been his ignorance of the difference be- 
tween the religious systems of Greece and Italy. Caesar and Cicero 
might deride the poetic under-world ; Juvenal might say, (ii. 149,) 
" Esse aliquid Manes et subterranea regna, 
Et contum, et Stygio ranas in gurgite nigras, 
Atque una transire vadum tot millia cymba, 
Nee pueri credunt nisi qui nondum oere lavantur." 
But these are all Grecian, not Roman, ideas on the subject, and the 
vulgar at Rome might make light of them, and yet believe (as the vul- 
gar every where do) in a future state. 

f The most convincing work on the evidences of Christianity, in 



CAUSES OF ITS SUCCESS. 121 

there are no safe grounds for supposing that this aid was 
continued beyond the age of the apostles. The Deity does 
nothing in vain ; and, when once the Christian religion was 
firmly rooted in the world, supernatural assistance was with- 
drawn. In fact, the accounts of all subsequent miracles ex- 
hibit the marks of error or imposition. 

The fourth cause was, beyond all question, a most effica- 
cious one. The virtues of the early Christians (to which we 
may add the purity of their system of morals) must have 
shone forth with preeminent lustre amid the moral darkness 
which then obscured the world. Not that virtue was totally 
extinct ; for God never suffers it to become so among any 
people; but from the language used by the apostle Paul, and 
from the history of the times, and the writings which have 
come down to us, we may infer that morality was never at a 
lower ebb than at that period of the Roman empire. There 
certainly was then no sect nor society which showed the phi- 
lanthropy and spirit of mutual love displayed by the early 
Christians. " Behold how these Christians love one another ! " 
was the language of the admiring heathens. 

The last cause assigned by the historian — the government 
of the church — could hardly have had much efficacy in the 
period of which we now treat. What the original form of 
church government was, is a question which was once agitated 
with a degree of violence and animosity which testified little 
for the acquaintance of the combatants with the true nature 
and spirit of the gospel. It is now, we believe, pretty gen- 
erally agreed among rational and moderate divines, that nei- 
ther Christ nor his apostles intended to institute any particu- 
lar form ; leaving it to the members of the church to regulate 
it according to their ideas of what would best accord with 
the political constitution under which they lived. And, in 
fact, if we are to judge by the effects, we might say that 
forms of ecclesiastical government are indifferent, and that 
•' whate'er is best administered is best; " for equal degrees of 
piety and holiness seem to be attainable under all. True re- 
ligion is seated in the heart ; it depends not on outward 
forms : it is the pride, the ambition, the vanity of man, that 
has introduced schism and dissension into the church of 
Christ. 

The first churches, as we have seen, were founded by mis- 

our opinion, is Paley's " Horae Paulinas," the perusal of which we 
strongly recommend. 

CONTIN. II P 



122 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

sionaries, who travelled from place to place. While they 
were present with any church, they necessarily exercised an 
authority over it; but every society requires a permanent 
government; and, therefore, the churches seem almost im- 
mediately to have appointed some persons to preside in their 
assemblies, and to execute other offices of supervision or 
ministration. The presidents were named Overseers or 
Elders ; * they were chosen by the members of the church, 
and confirmed and appointed to their office by the founder, 
or one authorized by him.t There is also a class of persons 
spoken of who were termed Prophets, and seem to have 
been men endowed with a ready eloquence, able to expound 
the Scriptures, and to exhort and admonish the congrega- 
tion. | A third class of officers were named Deacons, i. e. 
Ministers,^ who attended to the poor, and discharged some 
other duties. 

Such seems to have been the external form of the 
churches during the lifetime of the apostles. Each con- 
gregation was independent of all others, governed by officers 
chosen by its members, living in harmony and friendly com- 
munication with the other churches; those which were more 
wealthy contributing to the comforts of those, which, like 
the parent one at Jerusalem, were more exposed to affliction 
and poverty. 

It was not perhaps, in general, till after the death of the 
apostles, that, the congregations having become very numer- 
ous, a change was made in their form of government, and 
the office of Bishop or Overseer was separated from that of 
Elder, and restricted to one person in each society. His 
office was for life; he was the recognized organ and head 
of the church; he had the management of its funds, and 
the appointment to the offices of the ministry. He also ad- 
ministered the rite of baptism, and he pronounced the 
blessing over the bread and wine used at the Lord's Supper. 
The presbyters were his council or assistants ; for he was 
only regarded as the first among equals. 

Such, then, was the church of Christ in its early days. 
It was composed of converts from among the Jews and 

* 'EnloxoTToi and nQsa^vTsQOL. That they were synonymous, is evi- 
dent from the following passages : Acts xx. 18 and 28; Tit. i. 5 and 7. 
From the former are derived the modern Vescovo, (Ital.,) Obispo, 
(Sp.,) Eveque, (Fr.,) Bishop, (Eng.;) from the latter, Prete, (Ital.,) 
Pr^re, (Fr.,) Priest, (Eng.) 

t Tit. i. 5. t 1 Cor. xiv. 3 — 5. § Jiaxovoi. 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 123 

Gentiles, chiefly of the middle and lower ranks, for it did 
not exclude even slaves.* It was, in general, disregarded or 
despised by the learned and the great, by whom it was con- 
founded with Judaism, which, from its unsocial character, 
was the object of universal dislike, and was treated as a 
baneful superstition. That the early Christians were not 
perfect, is evinced by the Epistles of Paul himself, which, at 
the same time, prove how pure and holy were the precepts 
delivered to them; and, if Tacitus and Suetonius speak of 
the Christians as the worst of men, their friend, the younger 
Pliny, who, in his office of governor of a province, had oc- 
casion to become acquainted with that persecuted sect, bears 
testimony to the purity of their morals and the innocence of 
their lives.t 

* It must not, however, be inferred, as is sometimes done by the 
enemies of our religion, that there were hardly any of the better 
classes among the early converts. The mention in the apostolic 
writings of masters and servants ; the directions given to women not 
to adorn themselves with gold and silver, pearls and costly array j the 
sums raised for the relief of the poorer churches; — all testify the con- 
trary. St. Paul's remark, that there were not many of the noble or the 
mighty in the church of Corinth, would seem to prove that there were 
some; and the injunction to beware of the philosophy of the Greeks, 
and the Oriental Gnosis, would hardly have been necessary if the 
Christians were all ignorant and illiterate. 

t "They affirmed," says Pliny, "that the whole of their fault or 
error lay in this — that they were wont to meet together on a stated 
day before it was light, and sing among themselves alternately a hymn, 
to Christ as to God, and bind themselves by an oath, not to the com- 
mission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or 
adultery, never to falsify their word, nor to deny a pledge committed 
to them when called on to return it." 



HISTORY 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 



PART II. 

EMPERORS CHOSEN BY THE ARMY. 



CHAPTER I* 

GALEA. OTHO. VITELLIUS. 
A.u. 821—823. A.D. 68—70. 

GALBA. ADOPTION OF PISO. MURDER OF GALBA. OTHO. 

CIVIL WAR. —BATTLE OF BEDRIACUM. DEATH OF 

OTHO. VITELLIUS. VESPASIAN PROCLAIMED EMPEROR. 

ADVANCE OF THE FLAVIANS. STORMING OF CREMONA. 

BURNING OF THE CAPITOL. CAPTURE OF ROME. 

DEATH OF VITELLIUS. 

The supreme power in the Roman world had now been 
held for a century by the family which, in accordance with 
the Roman practice of adoption, we may regard as, and 
term, the Julian or Caesarian. It had also been transmitted 
in lineal succession, except in the case of Claudius, when 
the guards proved to the senate and the people that the 
power of giving a master to the Roman world lay with them. 
We are now to see this power claimed and exercised by the 

* Authorities : Tacitus, Suetonius, Dion, and Plutarch. 



A. D. 68.] CHARACTER OF GALEA. 125 

legions, and the pretensions of rival candidates asserted by 
the arms of their supporters.* 



Ser. Sulpicius Galba. 
A.U. 821—822. A.D. 68—69. 

Servius Sulpicius Galba, a member of one of the most 
ancient and honorable patrician families at Rome, was now 
in the seventy-third year of his age. He had borne the high 
offices of the state, had governed both Africa and Spain, 
and had displayed military talents in the former province 
and in Germany, which had procured him the triumphal 
ornaments. Both as a general and as a governor, he had 
shown himself to be rigidly severe, and even harsh. He was 
infected with the usual vice of age — avarice, and he was 
entirely under the influence of those by whom he was sur- 
rounded. 

The praetorian guards had been induced by their prefect, 
Nymphidius Sabinus, (the colleague of Tigellinus,) to abaa- 
don Nero, and declare for Galba, in whose name he prom- 
ised them the enormous donative of 7,500 denars a man, 
while the soldiers of the legions he engaged should each 
receive 1,250 denars. The troops which Nero had col- 
lected in Italy being thus gained over, the senate followed 
their example, and the usual titles and power were decreed 
to Galba. 

When Galba was certified of the death of Nero, he as- 
sumed the title of Cgesar, and set out for Rome. In that 
city there had been some disturbance, for Nymphidius had 
tried to induce the praetorian cohorts to declare for himselfj; 
but he had been overpowered and slain. On his route, Gal- 
ba put to death a consular and a consul elect, without even 
the form of a trial ; and when, as he drew near to the city, 
the rowers of the fleet, whom Nero had converted into sol- 
diers, met him, and, refusing to return to their former con- 
dition, demanded an eagle and standards, be ordered hjs 
horse to charge them; and, not content with the slaughter 
thus made, he decimated the remainder. When the praeto- 

* Hence we term this the period of emperors elected by the armjr, 
though such was not strictly the case in all parts of it, as from Nerva 
to Commodus. 

11* 



V2G CALUA. [a. D. 69. 

rians doinanded the donative promised in liis name, ho rc- 
])li(Ml that it was his way to levy, not to purchase his sokliers. 
He hr(>Iv(^ and sent home the CJerman ouards of tlie Caesars, 
without *;iviiio- them any irratuity. Jle ollended the peopk^, 
hy refusiiio- to [)iinish, at their earnest desire, Tigellinns and 
some otliers ol" tlu^ ministers of Nero's cruelty, lie, how- 
ever, j)ut to (h^alli llelius, l^ocusta, and otliers. 

It a(hkul nmch to th(; imi)opuhuity of (lalba, that h(^ was 
almost in a state of pupilage to three persons, namely, T. 
Vinius, his legate when in Spain, ("ornelius Laco, whom he 
had ma(l(» prtifect ofllu^ praetorians, and his iVecMhnan Iceius, 
to wliom he had given the ecpiestrian ring, and the surname 
of Martiainis. These persons had all their own ends in 
view; and, as tlusy knew that, imdcu' any circumstaiu-.es, the 
lili^ of the empinor couhl not he long, (hey thought oidy oi" 
providing for their future interests. 

The provinces and tlie armies in general submitted to the 
emperor appointed hy tht; siMiate. It was not so, liowever, 
with the legions in tht^ (Jermanies. (ilalba had most unwise- 
ly recaMed the noble Verginius under the show of friendship, 
but in r(>ality out of f(;ar and jealousy, and sent A. Vitellius 
to conunand the army of I^ovver Ciermany, vvliose general, 
Fonteius C'apito, had bium slain by his h^gates Cormrlius 
Acpiinus and Fabius Valens; while llordeonius Flaccus, 
who conuuanded the army of Upper Germany, enfeebled by 
age and the gout, had lost all authority over his troops. 

It was with this last army that the disturbance began. On 
new year's day, (<>i^) (laiba entered on the consulate, with 
Vinius for his C()lleague; and a few days after, word came 
that the legions of Upper Germany insisted on having 
another empcMor, leaving the choice to the senate and 
people. This intelligence madi^ (Jalba liasten the execution 
of a design ho. had already forujed t)f adopting some j)erson, 
as he was himself cliildless; and he held consultations with 
his three friends on the subject. Tiiey were divided in 
tiieir sentinuMits. IM. Salvius Otho, from whom, it nuiy be 
recollected, Nero had taken Toppiea, had early joined Galba, 
whom he hoped to succeed ; there was a great intimacy 
between him and Vinius, whose daughter, it was believed, he 
was engaged to marry, and Vinius therefore now strongly 
urged his claim to the adoption. Laco and Iceius had no 
particular favorite, but they were resolved to oppose the 
candidate of Vinius. Galba, partly, as was thought, moved 
by a regard for the state, which would have been to no pur- 



A.D. 69.] ADOPTION OF PISO. 127 

pose delivered from Nero if transmitted to Otho, and partly, 
as was supposed, influenced by Laco, fixed on Piso Licinia- 
nus, a young man of the noblest birth and . the strictest 
morals. Having adopted him with the usual forms, he took 
him into the camp, and informed the soldiers of what he 
had done ; but, influenced by his parsimony and his regard 
for ancient usages, he unfortunately said not a word of a 
donative, and the troops listened to him with silence and 
disgust. 

Otho, who, from the state of his affairs, saw ruin impend- 
ing over him, now resolved to make a desperate effort, and 
be emperor or perish. He had for some time been secretly 
tampering with the soldiery. By means of his freedman 
Onomastus, he gained over two soldiers, who undertook to 
make trial of the fidelity of their comrades; and, on the 
fifth day after the adoption of Piso, (Jan. 15,) as Galba was 
sacrificing at the temple of the Palatine Apollo, Onomastus 
came to Otho, who was standing by him, and said that the 
architect and builders were waiting for him, that being the 
signal agreed on. Otho, pretending that he had bought 
some houses which required to be examined, went away ; 
and, at the golden mile-stone in the Forum, he was met by 
three-and-twenty soldiers, who saluted him emperor, and, 
placing him in a sedan, hurried him away to the camp, 
being joined by about as many more on the way. 

Galba was still engaged sacrificing, when the report came, 
first, that some senator, and then that Otho, was carried 
away to the camp. It was resolved to make trial at once 
of the fidelity of the cohort which was on guard at the pal- 
ace, and Piso went and stood on the steps and addressed 
them. But, though he promised a donative, they did not 
declare themselves. All the other troops joined the praeto- 
rians, with the exception of those whom Nero had drafted 
from the German army to serve in Egypt, and whom Galba 
had lately treated with much kindness. 

The populace hastened to the palace with loud and noisy 
loyalty; and, while Galba was consulting with his friends, 
word came that Otho was slain in the camp : the senators 
and knights, then taking courage, vied with the populace in 
clamorous loyalty, and Galba was put into a chair to pro- 
ceed to the camp. Just as he was setting out, a guardsman, 
showing his bloody sword, cried out that he had slain Otho : 
Galba, ever mindful of discipline, replied, " Fellow-soldier, 
who ordered you 1 " Piso, who had been sent to the camp, 



128 OTHO. [a. d. 69. 

met the emperor on his way with the assurance that all was 
lost, the soldiers having declared for Otho. While they 
were deliberating on what were best to be done, the soldiers, 
horse and foot, rushed into the Forum, and dispersed the 
senators and the people. At the sight of them, the standard- 
bearer of the cohort which was with Galba threw down his 
ensign. The aged emperor was flung from his chair at the 
place called the Lake of Curtius. He desired the soldiers 
to slay him, if it seemed for the good of the state; and he 
was instantly despatched. Vinius was the next victim. 
Piso fled to the temple of Vesta, where he was concealed by 
a public slave attached to it; but he was soon discovered, 
dragged out and slain, and his head brought to Otho. Laco, 
Icelus, and several others, were put to death. The body of 
Galba, after being exposed to the insults of the soldiery 
and rabble, was indebted for sepulture to his steward, Argius, 
who interred it in his own garden. 



M. Salvius Otho, 
A. u. 822. A. D. 69. 



The soldiers now did every thing they pleased ; for Otho, 
even if inclined, had not the power to restrain them ; the 
senate and people rushed into servitude as usual. The trib- 
unitian power, the name of Augustus, and all the other 
honors, were decreed to Otho ; and, as far as Rome was con- 
cerned, his power was supreme. But he had hardly entered 
on his new dignity when he received intelligence that the 
German legions, joined by several of the Gallic states, had 
declared A. Vitellius emperor, and that two armies, under 
his legates, Fabius Valens and Alienus Caecina, were in full 
march for Italy. 

The legions of Britain and of Rsetia had also declared for 
Vitellius. Those of Spain at first gave in their adhesion to 
Otho ; but they speedily turned to his rival. The troops of 
the East and of Africa took the oath to Otho, when they 
learned his elevation by the senate. The army of Illyricura 
also took the enoragement to him, and adhered to it. His 
chief reliance, however, was on the guards and the other 
troops which had revolted in his favor against Galba. Dur- 
ing the time that Otho remained in the city, preparing 



A. p. 69.] CIVIL WAR. 129 

for the war, he displayed a degree of prudence and vigor not 
expected from his general character. He gained popularity 
by giving up to the public vengeance the infamous Tigelli- 
nus, and by bestowing pardon and his confidence on Marius 
Celsus, a consul elect, who had exhibited the most exempla- 
ry fidelity toward Galba, and who afterwards proved equally 
faithful to Otho himself 

On the eve of the Ides of March, (14th,) Otho, having 
commended the state to the care of the senate, set out to 
take the command of his army ; for Valens, at the head of 
40,000 men, was now approaching Italy by the Cottian Alps, 
while Caecina, with 30,000, was entering it by the Pennine 
Alps, and a part of the troops in Cisalpine Gaul had declared 
for Vitellius, and seized Milan, Novarra, and some other 
municipal towns. The whole of Italy to the Po was thus in 
the hands of the Vitellians. As Otho had the entire com- 
mand of the sea, he had put troops on board of the fleet from 
Misenum, and sent them to make a diversion on the southern 
coast of Gaul ; and they had some success against the troops 
despatched by Valens to oppose them. The Pannonian le- 
gions were on their march for Italy, and they had sent their 
cavalry and light troops on before. Five praetorian cohorts, 
with the first legion, and some cavalry, and a band of two 
thousand gladiators, were despatched from the city, under the 
command of Annius Gallus and Vestricius Spurinna, to oc- 
cupy the banks of the Po ; and Otho himself followed with 
the remainder of the praetorian cohorts, a body of veteran 
praetorians, and a large number of the rowers of the fleet. 

Csecina had crossed the Po, unopposed ; he moved along 
the stream of that river, and sat down before Placentia, into 
which Spurinna had thrown himself On the very first day 
of the siege, the splendid amphitheatre, the largest in Italy, 
which lay without the walls, was burnt, by accident or de- 
sign. Having failed in all his attempts to storm the town, 
Caecina put his troops over the river, and marched against 
Cremona. Gallus, who was leading the first legion to the 
relief of Placentia, being informed by letters from Spurinna 
of the route taken by Caecina, halted at a village named 
Bedriacum, between Verona and Cremona. Meantime Mar- 
tins Macro had suddenly crossed the Po with the gladiators, 
and routed a body of the Vitellian auxiliaries. The Otho- 
nians were now elate with success, and eager for battle, and 
they wrote to Otho, accusing their generals of treachery in 
restraining their ardor. 

The Othonian generals wished to avoid engaging the vet- 



130 oTiio. [a. d. 60. 

crnns of Vitcllius with their holiday troops, wliich liad never 
seen any service, aiul to wait for the arrival of tlu^ Paiinoniaii 
lejrions. On the other hand, Caxina, maddened hy the re- 
jxilses which he had reccnved at l*lac(M»tia, and anxious to 
brino- matters to u conclusion before the arriv.d of Vahnis, 
was iin|)ati(Mit of delay, lie therefore wished to provoke a 
battle; and, placintjj the best of his auxiliary troops in am- 
bush, in tlui woods on (;ach si(l(^ of the road, at a place called 
'VUv Teu4)le of the Castors, about twelve ruiles IVoui (/re- 
niona, he sent a party of horse along the road, witli directions 
to fall on the encMuy, and then retir(^ and draw them into 
tlu> aud)usca<lo. 'VUc plan, how(!ver, was betrayed to Ihe 
Othonian jjjenerals, Suetonius Paulinus and Marius Celsus, 
of whoui the former takintr the connnand of the foot, and 
tlie latter that of the horses, they made such dis[)ositious as 
miijjht turn the Ciuemy's wih^ a^rainst himself Accordinoly, 
wluMi the Vitellian horse turncul and tied, Celsus kej)t his 
men in check ; those in the and)ush then rising before their 
time, (/clsiis trradually fell back till he dre:w them to where 
they found the road occupied by the legionaries, while 
cohorts were on each side, luid the cavalry had now gotten 
into their rear. Had Paulimis given the word at once, they 
might have been cut to piec(\s; but he delayed so loug, that 
they had time to save themselves in the adjoining vineyards, 
and a litth^ wood, from which they made sallies, and killed 
souu^ of the most forward of the Othonian horse. The 
Othonian infantry now pushed forward, and, as Caicina sent 
his troops out only by single cohorts to opi)Ose them, tho 
resistance which they experienced was slight; and it was 
thought, on both sides, that, if Paulinus hatl not st>uude(l ;i 
recall, Ca;cina's army might have been annihilated. Tho 
reason which Paulinus assigned for doing so, was his fear 
lest his wearied meu should be attacked by fresh troops from 
the camp of the Vitellians, in which case he should have no 
reserve to support theui; his arguments, however, did not 
prove geiuually satisfactory. 

This check abated vt^y nuich the confidence of botli Ciu- 
eina and his men ; it had a similar eliect on those of Va- 
lens, who had now readied Ticinum. Tlu^y had lately 
been very mutinous, and their giMieral had narrowly escaped 
tleath at tlunr hands; and when they heard of the recent 
disaster of their couuades, they were near breaking out into 
nmtiny again. They would brook no delay; they urged 
on the standard-bearers, and they speedily joined the army 
of Ciecina. 



A.D.'GO.] CIVIL WAR. 131 

Otlio now JidviHod with liis gen(3ral.s wlicthcr it would be 
better to protruct the war, or to bring mutters to a speedy 
decision. SiietoniuH ;irirued Htrongly in liivor of the foriner 
course. Tiie VitellianH, lie siiid, were all tiiere ; lliey could 
calculate on no additions to their force; they would soon be 
in want of corn ; tli(i surrnncr was corning on, and the (ier- 
inans, it was well known, could not stand the heat of Italy. 
On the other jjand, Otlio had Pannonia, Mcnsia, and the 
East, with their large aniii(!s; he had Italy and the city with 
him, and tlu; name of the senate and j)eo|)le, which was 
always of importance ; lie had ])lenty of money, and his men 
were inured to the climate. The line of the Fo, as Placen- 
tia had j)roved, could be easily defend(!d ; he wouhl s])eedily 
])v. joiM(;d by the letrions from lllyricnm. All tluircfore con- 
spired to reconnnend delay. The oj)inions of Celsus and 
AnniuH (i alius coincided with that of Suetonius. On the 
olhcr hand, Otlio himself was inclincjd to a, speedy decision, 
and his brother Tilianus, to whom he had given the chief 
command, and the praetorian prefect, Licinius Proculus, men 
utterly devoid of <;x|)erienc(;, flatter(;d his wishes. TIm.' gen- 
erals ceased to opi)ose. Jt was then asked, should the em- 
peror himself appear in the field or not. Suetonius and 
Celsus gave Jio o|)inion, and the others decided that he 
should retire to IJrcscia, (/i/ur///////,,) and reserve himself for 
the empire. Nothing could be more pernicious than this 
course, for he took with him sonje of tlie best trooj)s; and, 
moreover, as the soldiers distrusted their generals, and had 
confidence in himself alone, it diminished tlie moral force of 
the army. 

Valens and Ca3cina, who, by means of scouts and desert- 
ers, knew all that was going on in the eiUMiiy's camp, now 
b(5gan to throw a bridge; ol" boats over the Po, as if with the 
intention of driving olf the gladiators. While they were 
tlius engag(;d, the Othoniaiis advanced four miles from Be- 
driacum, and encamped, displaying so little skill in the se- 
lection of the site, that, though it was spring-time, and there 
was a number of streams all about them, the soldiers actually 
sulfered for want of water. Celsus and Paulinus were gen- 
erals only in name, and their oj)inions had never been taken. 
The troops were then set in motion, to march for the con- 
fluence of the Po and the Adda, sixteen miles off", in spite 
of the rciinonstrances of the g(!nerals, Titianus and Proculus, 
being confnined by an express from Otlio, ordering matters 
to be broujrht to a decision at once. 



132 oTHo. [a. d. 69. 

Caecina was viewing the progress of the bridge, when 
word came that the enemy was at hand. He hurried back 
to the camp, where he found that Valens had got the troops 
under arms. The horse issued forth, and charged the Otho- 
nians, but were driven back; the legions, favored by the 
denseness of the trees, which concealed them from view, 
formed without disorder. The Othonians were advancing 
without any order ; the baggage and the followers mingled 
with the soldiers, along a road with deep ditches on each 
side. A report being spread that his own troops had re- 
volted from Vitellius, the Othonians, when they came in 
view, saluted the Vitellians as friends ; but they were soon 
made to perceive their error. A severe conflict ensued ; but 
the Othonians were finally routed and driven to their camp, 
and the Vitellians took up their position for the night within 
a mile of it. The praetorians alone were unbroken in spirit; 
they asserted that they were betrayed, not conquered, and 
insisted on continuing the war. Morning, however, brought 
cooler thoughts, and a deputation was sent to sue for peace, 
which was readily granted, and the two armies then united. 

When the news of the defeat at Bedriacum reached Bres- 
cia, the troops there, instead of being dejected, sought to in- 
spirit their emperor to continue the war; and envoys from 
the Moesian legions, who were now at Aquileia, assured him 
of their resolution to adhere to his cause. But Otho had 
already formed his determination to end the contest for 
empire by a voluntary death. He addressed those about 
him in manly terms, declaring that he would not be the 
cause of ruin to such brave and worthy men. He insisted 
on their providing for their own safety ; and, having distrib- 
uted money among them, and burnt all letters reflecting on 
Vitellius, he retired, in the evening, to his bed-chamber, and 
taking two daggers, and trying their edge, he placed one 
under his pillow. He passed the night in tranquillity, and at 
daybreak he thrust the dagger into his bosom. At the groan 
which he gave, his freedmen and friends came in; but they 
found him already dead. The funeral was hurried ; for so 
he had earnestly desired, lest his head should be cut ofl* and 
insulted. Some of the soldiers slew themselves at the pyre, 
and their example was followed by many at Bedriacum, Pla- 
centia, and other places.* 

* Verginius, at this time, ran the risk of his life for again refusing 
the empire.. He had afterwards a narrow escape from the soldiers of 



A. 1). 09.] CIIARACTEll OF VITELLIUS. 133 

A. VitcUius. 
A. u. H2'2— 823. A. D. 69—70. 

The news of the death of Otho reiichcjd Rome durnij^ the 
celohration of tli(; (J(!rcal panics. Tlie event, joiiKui with 
that of l-'laviuH Sahiiiii.s, the city prclei^t, liavinj* causcuJ the 
Holdiers there to take the oath to VitelliuH, bein^ umiouuced 
in the tlictitrt!, the wpectators shouted for Vitelliiis, and they 
then carruid th(i iniiijrea of (jalha,, a<h>rni!d vvitli J.iurc;! and 
Ihjwers, round to the temples. The usual honors and titles 
w(!re, without hesitation, decreed to VitcUius hy the senate, 
and thaidts w(;re voted to th(! armies of Ciermany. 

Aulus Vitellins, who was thus sudd<'nly raised to (unpiro, 
was the son of L, Vilellius, who, as we have seen above, was 
one of the basest of flatterers in the times of Caius and 
Claudius. He himsctlf had, in early youth, been an inmate 
of the Capraian sty of 'J'ib(;rius; he gained tlu; favor of 
Caius by his loudness for chariot races; that of Claudius by 
his love of dice, and thai of Nero by a<lroit flattery of his 
passion lor the stag(!. ile was distinj^uislied above; all men 
lor his y;luttony, 00 that Galba, when sending- him to Lower 
(jermany, jravf; as his rcuison for selecting him, th:it none 
are hjss to be feared than those who think of nothin^i; but 
eating. 

Vitellius was coihictinii- reenforcements in Gaul when he 
heard of the victory at IJedriacum. lie was met at l^yons 
{/ju^dumim) by his own j^en(;rals ;ind by those of the; Otho- 
nians. Of these last, Suetonius and I'roculus escaj)ed by 
aacribinj^ to treachery on their own part the accidents which 
liad favored the; Vitcdliims. Titiimus was excus(Ml on the 
ground of natural alfection to his brother ; and Celsiis was 
even allowed to retain the consulate, to which he had been 
appointed. The most zealous of the Olhonian cr^nturions, 
h<iwev(;r, were put to denth — an act whicli tended greatly 
to alienate the lllyrian army. On the whole, however, Vi- 

VitelUuB, when at that emperor's own table : " Nee quemquam Btepius 
quain Vf-rginimri," nnyu TacitiiH, " oinnirt floditio infcstavit ; moncbiit 
iidiiiiratio viri ct t'arria, scd odcrant nl fasliditi." 7'liiH cxcclh'iit, irian, 
liow<!V«'r, (!B(!ap('d all daiifjicrH, and died, when coriHiil lor t,lio tliird 
tiiiKJ, ill liiL' ruifrn ofNcrva, iiiivinj^ rcaclicd iiis H'.U\ yvnr. JIIh riincral 
oration was proiiouiKicd hy 'J'acituH. I'liny, wlioHc f»iiardian Ik; had 
been, Hpi^akn of biin (Kp. ii. t. vi. 10) in teruiH ol* tin; grt;atcat rcnpect 
and alT(;«;ti<)n. 

CONTIN. 12 



134 riTELLius. [a. d. 69. 

tollius did not exhibit imicli of cither avarice or cruelty ; but 
his gluttony exceeded aJl conception, and the wealth of the 
empire seemed inadequate to tlie supply of his table. At the 
same time, all the north of Italy sulVored from the license of 
the soldiery, who, heedless of their otlicers, committed every 
species of excess. The spirit of the Othonians. too, was 
unbroken, and their lani;!;uaire was haughty and menaciniT. 
The fourteenth legion, which was the most turbulent, was, 
therefore, ordered to return to Britain, whence it had been 
recalled by Nero, and the pra^orians were first separated, 
and then disbanded. At Ticinum, almost in the presence 
of Vitellius himself, a tumult took place between the legion- 
aries and the auxiliaries of his own army. It was appeased 
with ditliculty; and, in consequence of it, the Batavian co- 
horts were sent home — a measure productive of future 
calamity. 

Vitellius thence proceeded to Cremona, where he was 
present at a show of gladiators given by C\ecina. lie then 
feasted his eyes with a view of the battk^fiold at Bedriacum, 
where the slain lay still unburied. At Bologna, he visited 
another show of gladiators, given by Valens. He advanced 
by easy journeys toward Rome, exhausting the whole coun- 
try on his way by requisitions for the numerous train that 
followed him. At length, lie came in view of Rome, at the 
head of (>0,000 men, attended by a still greater number of 
camp followers, Senators and knights, and crowds of the 
most profligate of the populace, poured forth to meet him. 
lie was about to enter the city as a conqueror in the mili- 
tary habit ; but, at the suggestion of his friends, he as- 
sumed the magisterial ^/'rt^/rrfr?. The eagles of four legions 
were borne before him ; ensigns and standards were around 
him; the troops — foot, horse, and allies — followed, all in 
their most splendid array. Re thus ascended the Cnpitol, 
where he embraced his excellent mother, and saluted her by 
the title of Augusta. 

It was remarked, as a matter of ill omen, that Vitellius 
took the otlice of chief pontitf on the iStli of July — a day 
rendered memorable in the annals of Rome by the disasters 
at the Cremera and the Allia.* He atVocted a civil deport- 
ment, refusing the title of Augustus, and attending the meet- 

* [The former was tlio dostruotion of the Fabian family by tJie Ve- 
jentes, A. U. C '370; the latter was the defeat of the Roman axmv by 
Bronuus and the Gauls, A. U. C. 3t>4. — J. T. S.] 



A. D. G9.] LUXURIOUS HAIilTS OF VITELLIUS. 135 

irig.s of the senate as a simple rnemhor of their body, and 
accornpariying his friends and soliciting votes for them in 
their canvass for the consulate. These popular arts, how- 
ever, did not blind men to his vices. His gluttony passed 
all bounds of moderation ; he hud three or fonr huge meals 
every day, for which he prepared himself by emetics ; and 
tlie lowest cost of each was 400,000 sesterces. One ban- 
(juet, given liim by fiis brother, is said to have connprised, in 
its bill' of fare, 2,000 of the choicest fishes, and 7,000 of the 
rarest birds. IJe was also immoderately given to the sports 
of tlie circus, theatre, and amphitheatre; and he alarmed 
men's minds by offering [)ub!ic sacrifices to the Manes of 
Nero, as if he proposed that prince for his example. Like 
his predecessors, he was governed by a freedman, named 
Asiaticus, who in cruelty, rapacity, and every other vice, 
fully e<pialled those of the courts of Claudius and Nero. 
The irenerals Caecina and Valens, of whom the former was 

r~> ' 

more desirous of power, the latter of money, also acted as 
th(iy pleased; and, altogether, Tacitus observes, *' no one in 
that court attempted to distinguish himself by worth or ap- 
plication to })usincss, the only road to power being to satiate 
tlie insatiable ap[)etites of Vitellius, by extravagant banquets, 
and expense and debauchery of every kind." The historian 
adds, that, in the few months that he reigned, Vitellius .spent 
nine hundred millions of sesterces. 

'J'he soldiers, meantime, were held under little restraint ; 
but their strength was melting away, from their riotous liv- 
ing, and from the insalubrity of the air and soil about Rome. 
Tiie strength of the legions was also reduced, by the forma- 
tion of sixteen new praetorian and four urban cohorts, into 
which any legionary who pleased miglit volunteer. 

The luxurious enjoyments of Vitellius were soon disturbed 
by tidings that the legions of the East would not submit to 
have a head imposed on the empire by those of Germany. 
There were four legions in vSyria, under the command of 
Licinius Mucianus, the governor of that province; and T. 
Flavius Vespasianus had, at the head of three other legions, 
been for the last three years carrying on the war against the 
rebellious Jews, which he had now nearly brought to a con- 
chision; and Ti. Alexander, the prefect of Egypt, command- 
ed two other legions. Vespasian had sent his son Titus to 
Rome, with his adhesion to Galba ; but, hearing on his way 
of the murder of that emperor, Titus had stopped, lest he 



136 viTELLius. [a. D. 69. 

might be made a hostage by either of the rival parties. The 
armies of the East had taken the oath of fidelity to Otho, 
without making any objection ; but when Vespasian would 
set them the example of taking it to Vitellius, they listened 
to him in profound silence. He then began to meditate on 
his own chances of empire; both Mucianus and Alexander, 
he had abundant reason to believe, would aid him in attain- 
ing it ; the third legion, which was now in Mcesia, had been 
drawn thither from Syria, and he was certain of its attach- 
ment to him, and it might be able to gain over the other 
legions of Illyricum. On the other hand, he reflected on the 
strength of the German legions, with which he was well 
acquainted, and tTieir superiority over those of the East, and 
also on the risk of his being assassinated, like Scribonianus 
in the time of Claudius. 

The legates and other officers tried to encourage him, and 
Mucianus, both in private and public, urged every topic like- 
ly to prevail with him. His mind was also affected by sun- 
dry omens and prophecies which he recollected ; and he 
at length resolved to run the risk, and win the empire, or 
perish in the attempt. To make the necessary preparations, 
he repaired to Cassarea, while Mucianus hastened to Anti- 
och, the capitals of their respective provinces. It was, 
however, at Alexandria, that he was first proclaimed empe- 
ror ; where, on the first of July, Alexander made the legions 
take the oath of fidelity to Vespasian; and two days later, 
as he was coming out of his chamber, at Csesarea, some sol- 
diers, who were at hand, saluted him emperor ; the rest then 
shouted out Caesar, Augustus, and the other imperial titles, 
and he no longer refused them. Mucianus had, meantime, 
brought over the Syrian legions, chiefly by assuring them 
that it was the intention of Vitellius to replace them by those 
of Germany, and remove them to the snows and cold of the 
north. The neighboring kings, Sohemus, Antiochus, and 
Agrippa, joined in the league, and a meeting was held at 
Berytus to deliberate on the best mode of proceeding. 

It was there resolved that every eflbrt should be made to 
obtain money and supplies of all kinds; that embassies 
should be sent to the Parthians and Armenians, to engage 
them to remain at peace ; that Titus should carry on the 
war in Judaea ; and Vespasian himself secure Egypt ; while 
Mucianus should set out, with a part of the army, against 
Vitellius ; and letters be written to all the armies and le- 



A. D. 69.] TROOPS DECLARE FOR VESPASIAN 137 

gates ; and every means be employed to induce the disband- 
ed praetorian cohorts to resume their arms in the cause of 
Vespasian. 

Accordingly, Mucianus set forth at once with a body of 
light troops, a much larger force following at a slower pace. 
He ordered the fleet from the Pontus to meet him at Byzan- 
tium, not being yet determined whether he should march 
through Moesia, or pass direct from Dyrrhachium to Brundi- 
sium or Tarentum. His course, however, was decided by 
the news of what had occurred in the army of Illyricum, 
For three legions from Moesia, (one of which was the third,) 
having reached Aquileia, on their march to join Otho, there 
learned the death of that prince. While they halted, officers 
arrived, inviting them to submit to Vitellius ; but they tore 
the banners which were sent to them bearing his name, and 
seized and divided among them the public money. The 
third then setting the example, they declared for Vespasian; 
and they wrote to the Pannonian army, inviting them to join 
them, under the penalty of being treated as enemies. This 
army, consisting of two legions, which had fought at Be- 
driacum, eager to efface the disgrace of defeat, was easily 
induced, chiefly by means of Antonius Primus, the com- 
mander of one of the legions, to accept the invitation ; and, 
the two armies being united, they easily induced that of 
Dalmatia to join them. 

The revolt of the Moesian legions was communicated to 
Vitellius by Aponius Saturninus, the governor of Moesia. 
He affected to make light of it, but he sent to summon aid 
from Germany, Spain, and Britain. At length, when the 
extent of the defection became known, he ordered Csecina 
and Valens to make ready for war. As Valens was then 
unwell, Caecina took the sole command, and the German 
army marched from Rome, but no longer the same, a few 
weeks' abode there having sufficed to relax its discipline and 
destroy its energy. The troops were directed to repair to 
Cremona and Hostilia; Caecina himself proceeded to Ra- 
venna, to confer with Lucilius Bassus, the commander of 
the fleet, and thence to Padua, to watch the course of 
events. 

The Flavian generals, meantime, held a consultation as 
to the best mode of proceeding. Some were for merely se- 
curing the Pannonian Alps, and waiting for reenforcements ; 
but Antonius Primus declared vehemently in favor of advan- 
cing into Italy at once, lest the Vitellians should have time 
12* R 



138 VITELLIUS. [a. d. 69. 

to recover their discipline, and be joined by troops from 
Gaul, Spain, and Britain. His opinion prevailed. Letters 
were written to Aponius, who had declared for the Flavian 
cause, urging him to come quickly with the Mcesian army. 
To secure the provinces from the attacks of the barbarians 
in the absence of the legions, the princes of the Sarmatian 
Jazyges, and Sido and Italicus, the kings of the Suevians, 
were taken into alliance. The army then descended into 
the plain of the Po, and the generals again debated what 
place should be fixed on for the seat of the war. Vespasian 
had sent orders for the army to halt at Aquileia, and wait for 
Mucianus, as, by his own occupation of Egypt, whence It- 
aly was chiefly supplied with corn, he hoped that want of 
food and pay would oblige the Vitellians to submit without 
the hazard of a battle. Mucianus, also, fearing lest the glory 
of terminating the conquest should be snatched from him- 
self, wrote several letters to the same effect. But the army 
had already determined on the attack of Verona, and had 
occupied Vicenza ( Vicetia) on its way to that town. 

CaBcina had taken a strong position near Hostilia, a Vero- 
nese village, having a river in his rear, and marshes on his 
flanks. Though his troops far outnumbered those of the 
Flavians, which as yet consisted of only two legions, and 
when joined within a few days by Aponius with another le- 
gion, were yet inferior, — he negotiated instead of fighting. 
The Flavians were soon after joined by two other legions, 
and they then prepared to assault Verona. But a sedition 
speedily broke out among them. They accused Aponius 
and Ampins Flavianus, the legate of Pannonia, of treachery ; 
and these officers had to fly for their lives, and the sole com- 
mand remained with Antonius, who was suspected of having 
excited the mutiny with this very view. 

Lucilius Bassus now made an attempt to induce the fleet 
at Ravenna to declare for Vespasian ; but he was seized by 
his own men, and sent a prisoner to Hadria. Caecina, who 
had made a secret agreement with the Flavian party, at first 
succeeded in inducing his men to declare for Vespasian ; but 
they soon, however, repented, seized him, and put him in 
bonds, and marched back to join the legions that were at 
Cremona. 

Antonius, judging that Valens, who was an able officer, 
and faithful to Vitellius, would soon arrive to take the com- 
mand, resolved to bring matters to a speedy decision. He 
therefore quitted Verona, and, advancing toward Cremona, 



A. D. 69.] ADVANCE OF THE FLAVIANS. 139 

encamped at Bedriacum. While the legionaries v/ere forti- 
fying the camp, he sent the auxiliary cohorts to plunder the 
lands of Cremona, and he himself, with a body of 4,000 horse, 
advanced for eight miles along the road leading to that city. 
Toward noon the enemy was announced to be on his march. 
An officer named Arrius Varus dashed forward, and charged 
and drove back, with some slight loss, the Vitellian horse, who 
were in advance ; but, fresh troops coming to their aid, the 
Flavians were repulsed in their turn. Antonius, however, 
checked their flight, and routed the Vitellians, who were in 
pursuit, and drove them back on two of their legions, which 
had advanced to the fourth mile-stone from Cremona; and, 
Vipstanus Messala coming up with the MoBsic auxiliaries, 
the Vitellian legions were driven back to the town. 

In the evening, the whole Flavian array came up on the 
ground w^here the engagement had taken place. Seeing the 
heaps of slain, they looked on the war as terminated ; and 
they were proposing to themselves the storm and plunder of 
Cremona, from which probably neither the arguments nor 
the authority of Antonius would have withheld them, had 
not some horsemen, who had been sent forward to reconnoi- 
tre, reported that the troops from Hostilia had joined, and 
that the whole strength of the Vitellian army now lay at Cre- 
mona. This intelligence rendered them obedient to their 
general ; and, though night was closing in, Antonius placed 
them in order of battle on the road itself and the lands on 
each side of it. 

The Vitellians, who were now without any general officers, 
were so confident of their own strength, that they would not 
remain in the town ; and they set forth with the intention of 
falling on and routing the Flavians, whom they supposed to 
be exhausted with cold and want of food. It was about nine 
o'clock when they suddenly fell in with them, drawn up as 
we have described, A desultory, irregular conflict was 
maintained through the night. The Vitellians had drawn 
their artillery all up on the road, whence it was doing great 
execution, especially a huge halista belonging to the fifteenth 
legion ; when two gallant soldiers of the Flavians, taking up 
the shields of the Vitellians, that they might not be known, 
rushed forwards, and, though they lost their lives in the at- 
tempt, they succeeded in cutting the cords of the engines, 
and thus rendering them useless. At length the moon rose 
behind the Flavians, lengthening their shadows, and giving 
them a clear view of the enemy, who now fought under a 



140 VITELLIUS. [a. d. 69. 

manifest disadvantage. When the sun appeared, the third 
(as was the usage in Syria) saluted that lord of day. A re- 
port ran through both armies, that it was the troops of Muci- 
anus, who had just arrived, that they were thus greeting. 
Antonius, taking advantage of the effect of this report, made 
a steady charge on the loosely-formed Vitellians, who speed- 
ily broke and fled to Cremona, whither the victorious Fla- 
vians lost no time in following them. But when they ap- 
proached the town, they saw a labor before them which they 
had not expected. In the beginning of the war, the German 
army, when it entered Italy, had fixed a strongly-fortified 
camp under the walls of Cremona; and its strength had been 
lately augmented very considerably. The Flavians saw that 
they must either attack and carry this camp, or return to 
Bedriacum, or adopt the hazardous course of encamping in 
view of a numerous army. They chose the first course, 
perilous as it was; the gates and ramparts were assailed: 
when their efforts slackened, one of their leaders (Antonius, 
as some said) pointed to Cremona as their reward, and their 
exertions were renewed. At length the tenth burst open one 
of the gates and rushed in ; the camp was speedily carried, 
and the Vitellians were slaughtered in vast numbers as they 
made their escape to the town. Their loss in this and the 
preceding actions is said to have exceeded 30,000 men, 
while that of the Flavians amounted only to 4,500.* 

The city of Cremona was defended by lofty walls, and 
towers, and massive gates. Its population was numerous, 
and, this being the time of one of its fairs, it was full of peo- 
ple from the rest of Italy, This last circumstance, however, 
acted as an incentive on the Flavians, who reckoned that the 
plunder would be by so much the greater. The assault was 
therefore commenced : at first the resistance was vigorous, 
but gradually it slackened, as the Vitellian officers began to 
reflect that, if Cremona were taken by storm, they had no 
further place of refuge, and that it was on them that the ven- 
geance of the victors would fall. They therefore set Csecina 
at liberty, and prayed him to be their mediator ; they threw 
aside the standards of Vitellius, and displayed tokens of sup 
plication from the walls. Antonius then ordered his men to 
cease, and the Vitellians marched out with the honors of 
war. The Flavians at first insulted them; but, when they 
marked their humble demeanor, and called to mind that these 

* Josephus, Jewish War, iv. 11. Hegesippus, iv. 30. 



A. D. 69.] STORMING OF CREMONA. 141 

were the men who had used their victory at Bedriacum with 
such moderation, they felt compassion. But when Caecina 
appeared with the consular ensigns, they could not control 
their indignation, and Antonius had difficulty to save him. 

Antonius either could not or would not save the town ; 
40,000 soldiers, and a still greater number of camp followers, 
the more terrible of the two on such an occasion, rushed in. 
The usual series of atrocities, murder, rape, robbery, torture, 
enacted in towns taken by storm, ensued. The town was 
fired in various parts; it burned for four days j at the end 
of which time a solitary temple without the gates alone re- 
mained to testify the former existerice of Cremona. 

Vitellius, meantime, was thinking only of his sensual enjoy- 
ments.* Valens, with a train of women and eunuchs, was 
moving leisurely onwards, when he heard of the treachery 
of CsBcina and Lucilius Bassus. Instead of hastening by 
forced marches to Cremona, or making some daring effort, 
he still loitered, and thought only of seducing the wives and 
daughters of his hosts. He fell back into Umbria, and 
thence into Etruria, where, hearing of the loss of the battle 
at Cremona, he seized some shipping and made sail for Nar- 
bonese Gaul, with the intention of exciting the Gauls and 
Germans to arms. But his project failed; and, being driven 
by a storm to Bomo islets near Marseilles, he was there taken 
by the ships sent by the Flavians in pursuit of him. 

The whole of Italy north and east of the Apennines was 
now in the hands of the Flavians. As the winter was ap- 
proaching, and the Po was beginning to overflow, Antonius 
resolved to make no further delay; and, leaving the sick and 
wounded, and a part of the legionaries, at Verona, he ad- 
vanced with the remainder to Fano, {Fanum Fortunce.) Vi- 
tellius had sent fourteen praetorian cohorts and all his cavalry 
to defend the passage of the Apennines, committing the 
defence of the city to his brother L. Vitellius and the remain- 
ing preetorian cohorts. He occupied himself with remitting 
tributes, granting immunities, appointing consuls for a series 
of years, anl^ such like useless or pernicious acts, never in- 
termitting the pleasures of the table till he learned that the 
army insisted on his presence with it. He then set out with 
a great number of the senators, and joined it at Mevania ; 
but the total ignorance of war which he displayed, and his 

* " Umbraculis hortorum abditus, (ut ignava animalia, quibus si ci- 
bum suggeras, jacent torpentque,) prseterita, instantia, futura pari obli- 
vione dimiserat." Tacitus. 



142 VITELLIUS. [a. d. 69. 

continual drunkenness, proved how unqualified he was for 
empire. Instead of crossing the Apennines and attacking 
^he enemy, who was suffering from the weather, and from 
want of supplies in an exhausted country, he frittered away 
the strength of his army, and exposed it to be cut up in de- 
tail. Tidings of the revolt of the fleet at Misenum gave 
him a pretext for returning to Rome ; he there learned fur- 
ther, that the people of Puteoli and other towns had joined 
in the revolt, and the officer, whom he sent to recall the sol- 
diers to their duty, declared for Vespasian, and occupied 
Tarracina. 

The disgraceful departure of Vitellms imboldened the 
people of the Sabellian race to manifest their inclination to 
the Flavian cause. Antonius, also, though the weather was 
foul and the snow deep, crossed the Apennines, which he 
never, perhaps, could have achieved, had Vitellius been other 
than he was. As he was advancing, he was met by Petillius 
Cerialis, an able officer, and a connection of Vespasian's, who 
had escaped from confinement in the garb of a peasant. Ce- 
rialis was forthwith associated in the command of the army, 
which encamped at Carsulae, within ten miles of the Vitel- 
lians. Here the Flavians were joined by the troops from 
Verona. Desertion soon spread among the Vitellians ; and, 
when the head of Valcna, -who had been put to death at Ur- 
bino, was brought and shown to them, they gave up all hopes, 
and consented to declare for Vespasian. Frequent messages 
were at this time sent by the Flavian generals to Vitellius, 
offering him a large income and a retreat in Campania, if he 
would give over the contest. Mucianus wrote to the same 
effect ; and Vitellius was begmnmg to speak of the number 
of slaves he should require and the place he should select; 
for, as Tacitus says, *' such a torpor had seized his mind, 
that, if others had not remembered that he was an emperor, 
he would have forgotten it himself" 

The prefect of the city at this time was Flavius Sabinus, 
the elder brother of Vespasian ; for a generous or prudent 
policy of sparing the relatives of each other, of which Otho 
had set the example, prevailed among the rival candidates 
for empire. Vespasian's younger son, Domitianus, was also 
at Rome and in safety. Sabinus was strongly urged, by the 
principal persons in the city, to put himself at the head of 
the urban cohorts and the watchmen, with their own slaves, 
and seize the city for his brother ; but he was a man of mild 
temper, and averse from civil bloodshed ; he therefore pre- 



A. D. 69.] AFFAIRS AT ROME. 143 

ferred the way of negotiation * he had several private meet- 
ings with Vitellius, and they finally came to an arrangement 
in the temple of Apollo, it was said, in the presence of two 
witnesses. Vitellius's friends, when they heard of it, did all 
in their power to make him break the agreement, but to no 
purpose. On the 18th of December, when news came of the 
defection of the troops at Narnia, he came down from the 
palace, clad in black, having his young son in a litter with 
him, and addressed the people and soldiery in the Forum, 
telling them that he retired for the sake of peace and the re- 
public; and commending to them his family. He then, in 
token of his resignation, handed his dagger to the consul, 
who declined to receive it. He moved toward the temple 
of Concord, to deposit his ensigns there, and then retire to 
the adjoining house of his brother; but the people and the 
German soldiers opposed his passage, and forced him to re- 
turn to the palace. 

The principal persons of both orders, hearing that Vitel- 
lius had abdicated, had repaired to the house of Sabinus, 
where the urban cohorts and the watchmen were also assem- 
bled. When they heard of the conduct of the populace and 
the German cohorts, feeling that they had gone too far to 
recede, they resolved to have recourse to arms. A skirmish 
Speedily took place with some of the Vitellians, in which 
they were worsted; and Sabinus then retired to the Capitol, 
with his soldiers and some of the knights and senators. Dur- 
ing the night, as the guard of the Vitellians was slack, he 
caused his children and nephew to be brought thither ; and 
at the same time he sent to apprize the Flavian generals of 
his situation. 

As soon as it was light, Sabinus sent a centurion to remon- 
strate with Vitellius on his breach of faith. Vitellius at- 
tempted to excuse himself, by declaring his want of power to 
restrain his soldiers. The centurion was obliged to retire 
by the rear of the house to elude them; and he had hardly 
returned to the Capitol when they advanced to the assault. 
They assailed the portico of the temple with flaming brands; 
Sabinus caused the statues to be all pulled down and piled 
up behind the doors, to serve as a barrier. They then made 
their attacks at all the approaches, especially that by the 
Asylum. The edifice at length burst into flames, whether 
fired by the besieged or the besiegers was uncertain ; and thus 
was the temple of the tutelar deities of Rome destroyed for 
the second time, in the midst of civil commotions. Un- 
daunted by the flames, the Vitellians rushed in : few of the 



144 VITELLIUS. ■ [a. D. 69. 

defenders made resistance ; most sought to escape in various 
ways, and generally with success. Domitian was concealed 
by the keeper of the temple ; and next day he got away, dis- 
guised as one of the ministers of Isis. Sabinus and the con- 
sul Atticus were seized and dragged into the presence of 
Vitellius. In vain the powerless emperor wished to save the 
former ; he was murdered before his eyes. Atticus escaped 
by declaring that it was he himself that had fired the temple. 

The Flavians were keeping the Saturnalia, at Otriculum, 
when they heard of the late events at Rome. Cerialis ad- 
vanced immediately, with a body of a thousand horse, to 
enter the city by the Salarian road, while Antonius led the 
remainder of the army along the Flaminian. The night was 
advanced, when, at a place named the Red Rocks, [Saxa 
Rubra,) he was informed of the burning of the Capitol and 
the death of Sabinus. Cerialis was repulsed, when he ap- 
proached the city, and driven back to Fidena? ; and the popu- 
lace, elated at this success of their party, took up arms for 
Vitellius, and demanded to be led to l3attle. He thanked 
them for their zeal, but he preferred negotiation to arms. 
He sent deputies to both Cerialis and Antonius, and the 
Vestal Virgins were the bearers of a letter to the latter. The 
holy maidens were treated with all due respect ; but the 
answer returned to Vitellius was, that the murder of Sabi- 
nus and the burning of the Capitol had put an end to all 
hopes of peace. 

Antonius having made a fruitless effort to induce his 
troops to halt for one day at the Mulvian bridge, they ad- 
vanced to the assault, in three bodies, along the Tiber and the 
Salarian and Flaminian roads. The Vitellians opposed them 
vigorously at all points; success was various, but fortune 
mostly favored the Flavians. The people looked on, as if it 
had been the sports of the amphitheatre, cheering the vic- 
tors, and requiring those who sought refuge any where to be 
dragged out and slain. They also plundered the dead. In 
some parts of the city there were the flashing of arms and 
the sounds of combat ; while in others, the usual course of 
debauchery was going on, and the baths and the taverns were 
filled with their daily visitors. It was at the proetorian camp 
that the battle raged the loudest. Pride urged the old prae- 
torians to recover their camp ; their successors were de- 
termined to die rather than yield it up. Every kind of en- 
gine was employed against it ; at length an entrance was 
forced, and all its defenders were slain. 

When the city was taken, Vitellius had himself conveyed 



A. D. 70.] MURDER OF VITELLIUS. 145 

in a sedan to the house of his wife, on the Aventine, intend- 
ing to steal away, during the night, to Tarracina, which his 
brother had recovered. But he changed his mind, and re- 
turned to the palace. He found it deserted ; and, as he 
roamed its empty halls, his spirit failed, and he concealed 
himself in the porter's lodge, hiding under the bed and bed- 
clothes. Here he was found and dragged out by a Flavian 
tribune. His hands were tied behind his back ; a rope was 
put about his neck; his robe was torn; a sword was set 
under his chin to make him hold up his head ; some reviled 
him, others pelted him with mud and dirt. He was thus led 
along the Sacred Way; and, at the Gemonian Stairs, he was 
hacked to death, and his body was then dragged away and 
flung into the Tiber. 



CHAPTER H.* 

THE FLAVIAN FAMILY. 
A. u. 823—849. A. D. 70—96. 

STATE OF AFFAIRS AT ROME. GERMAN WAR. CAPTURE AND' 

DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. RETURN OF TITUS. VES- 
PASIAN. CHARACTER OF HIS GOVERNMENT. HIS DEATH. 

CHARACTER AND REIGN OF TITUS. PUBLIC CALAMITIES. 

DEATH OF TITUS. CHARACTER OF DOMITIAN. CON- 
QUEST OF BRITAIN. DACIAN WAR. OTHER WARS. CRU- 
ELTY OF DOMITIAN. HIS DEATH. LITERATURE OF THIS 

PERIOD. 

T. Flavins Sahinus Vespasianus. 

A. u. 823—832. A. D. 70—79. 

The death of Vitellius terminated the civil war, but it did 
not yet restore tranquillity to the empire. Rome presented 
the appearance of a conquered city. The victorious Flavi- 
ans pursued and slaughtered the Vitellians in all quarters , 

* Authorities : Suetonius and Dion. 
CONTIN. 13 S 



146 VESPASIAN. [a. D. 69. 

houses were broken open and robbed, and their owners, if 
they resisted, were murdered. Complaint and himcntation 
were heard on all sides. The generals were unable to re- 
strain their men, and the evil was left to exhaust itself The 
troops were soon, however, led as far as Bovilhc and Aricia, 
to oppose L. Vitellius, who was reported to be on his march 
against the city ; but he and his cohorts surrendered at dis- 
cretion, and he was led to Rome and put to death. The 
same was the fate of a few more of the friends of Vitellius ; 
among whom may be mentioned his freedman Asiaticus. 
Some persons were prosecuted and punished for their acts in 
the time of Nero ; among whom it is gratifying to mention 
the i)hilosoplier Egnatius Celcr, the friend and prosecutor 
of Soranus. 

The senate decreed all the usual imperial honors to Ves- 
pasian ; the consulship for the ensuing year to him ; to his 
eldest son, the pra^torship ; and the consular authority to Do- 
mitian. The consular ensigns we're decreed to Antonius Pri- 
mus ; the prictorian, to Cornelius Fuscus and Arrius Varus ; 
and the triumphal, to Mucianus, for his success against the 
Sarmatians. The supreme power lay nominally with Domi- 
tian ; but its reality was in the hands of Antonius, from 
whom, however, it passed to Mucianus, who speedily arrived. 
Mucianus acted in all things as if he were a partner of the 
empire; Domitian also exercised such imperial power, that 
his father, it is said, wrote to him one time, saying, " I thank 
you, son, for allowing me to reign, and for not having de- 
posed me." 

Vespasian did not arrive at Rome till toward the end of 
the year. As the Roman arms were at this time occupied 
by two distinct enemies in diiferent parts of the world, the 
Germans and the Jews, and both wars were concluded in this 
year, we will here briefly notice them. 

Tlie origin of the German war was as follows : The Bata- 
vians, a tribe of the Chattans, being expelled from their ori- 
ginal seats, had settled in the north-eastern extremity of 
Gaul, and in the island formed by the branches of the Rhine. 
They were in alliance with the Romans, on the usual terms, 
and therefore supplied them with troops; their cavalry, from 
its activity and the skill and boldness with which it was 
known to cross the deepest and most rapid rivers, was always 
greatly prized in the Roman service ; and the Batavian co- 
horts had very much distinguished themselves both in Britain 
and at Bedriacum. Two brothers, named Julius Paulus and 



A. D. 69.] INSURRECTION OF CIVILIS. 147 

Claudius Civilis, had held of late the chief command of the 
Batavian troops. The former was put to death by Foiiteius 
Capito, on a false charge of disalFection in the time of Nero, 
and the latter was sent in chains to Rome. He was acquit- 
ted by Galba, but he ran fresh danger from Vitellius, as the 
army was clamorous for his execution. lie, however, escaped, 
and returned to his own country, where, under the pretence 
of acting for Vespasian, he prepared to' cast off the Roman 
yoke. He first induced the Batavians to refuse the levy or- 
dered by Vitellius, and then proposed to the Canninifates, a 
neighboring people, to join the league; he also sent to solicit 
the Batavian cohorts, that had been sent back from Bedria- 
cum, and were now at Mentz, {Magontiacuni.) The Cannin- 
ifates, choosing one of their nobles, named Brinno, for their 
leader, and having associated with them the trans-Rhenic 
Frisians, attacked and took the winter camp of two cohorts 
on the sea-coast. Civilis at first pretended great zeal for the 
Romans; but, when he found that his designs were seen 
through, he joined Brinno openly, and their united forces, 
aided by the treachery of a Tungrian cohort and of the Bata- 
vian rowers in the ships, succeeded in defeating a body of 
Roman troops, and capturing their fleet of four-and-twenty 
vessels. Hordeonius ordered Lupercus, one of his legates, 
to march against the rebels with two legions, Ubian and Tre- 
virian auxiliaries, and some Batavian cavalry, Lupercus 
therefore crossed the river; Civilis gave him battle; in the 
midst of the engagement, the Batavian horse went over to 
their countrymen; the auxiliaries fled in confusion, and the 
legionaries were obliged to take refuge in the Old Camp. 

Meantime a messenger from Civilis had overtaken the Ba- 
tavian cohorts that were on their march for Italy. They im- 
mediately began, as a pretext for defection, to demand a 
donative, double pay, and other advantages promised by Vi- 
tellius; and Hordeonius having tried in vain to satisfy them, 
they set out to join Civilis. Hordeonius then, resolving to 
have recourse to force, sent orders to Ilerennius Gallus, who 
commanded at Bonn, {Banna,) to stop them in front while 
he himself should press on their rear. He soon, however, 
changed his mind, and sent word to Ilerennius to let them 
pass. But the latter yielded to the instances of his men, and 
led out his forces of 3,000 legionaries, some Belgian cohorts, 
and a train of camp followers, against the Batavians. The 
latter, inferior in number, but superior in discipline, drove 
them back with great slaughter to their camp, and then. 



148 VESPASIAN. [a. D. 69. 

continuing their route without further molestation, joined 
Civilis. 

The arrival of these veteran cohorts inspired Civilis with 
confidence; but, still aware of the power of Rome, he made 
all his men take the oath of fidelity to Vespasian. He sent 
to invite the two legions in the Old Camp to do the same ; but, 
meeting with a scornful refusal, he resolved to attack them 
without further delay. He had now been joined by some of 
the Germans, and his army was numerous. On the other 
hand, the Romans did not exceed 5,000 men, and they had 
to defend a camp made for two legions. A general assault 
was at first tried ; and, when it did not succeed, Civilis, aware 
that the supply of provisions in the camp was very short, re- 
solved to trust to the surer course of blockade. But vast 
numbers of Germans having now flocked to him, to gratify 
their ardor he tried another assault. It, however, also failed, 
and he then resumed the blockade. Meantime he ceased 
not to urge by letters the people of Gaul to insurrection ; and 
disaffection in consequence prevailed extensively throughout 
that country. 

Hordeonius, unable to control the mutinous spirit of his 
troops, gave the command of the force which he sent to raise 
the siege of the Old Camp to the legate Dillius Vocula. This 
oflicer advanced as far as Gelduba, and there encamped. 
Meantime, tidintT^s of the battle of Cremona arrived ; and, on 
the receipt of letters from Antonius Primus, with an edict 
of Caecina as consul, Hordeonius made his men take the oath 
to Vespasian. An envoy was then sent to Civilis, to inform 
him that he had now no further pretext for war, and to re- 
quire him to lay down his arms. He, however, refused, and 
he sent off the veteran cohorts with the Germans to attack 
the forces at Gelduba, while he himself remained to keep up 
the blockade of the Old Camp. These troops came so sud- 
denly on Vocula, that he had not time to draw out his men ; 
and, the cowardice or defection of some Nervian cohorts aid- 
ing the enemy, they were on the very point of obtaining a 
complete victory, when some Gascon cohorts came suddenly 
up, and fell on their rear. The Batavians, taking them for 
the entire Roman army, lost courage, and, being now assailed 
in front and rear, were put to flight with loss. Vocula then 
marched to the relief of the Old Camp. Civilis gave him 
battle in front of it ; but a sally of the besieged, and a fall of 
Civilis himself from his horse, and a report that he was slain 
or wounded, damped the spirit of his men, and Vocula forced 



A. D. 70.] INSURRECTION OF CIVILIS. 149 

his way into the camp, which he secured with additional 
works. A convoy, which he sent to fetch corn from Nova- 
sium, being attacked on its return by Civilis, and forced to 
take refuge in the camp at Gelduba, he drew a good part of 
the troops out of the Old Camp, and went with them to their 
relief. Civilis then renewed the siege of the Old Camp; and 
when Vocula went on to Novasium, the Batavian general 
captured Gelduba, and then came off victorious in a cavalry 
action near Novasium. Mutiny now prevailed to a great ex- 
tent in the Roman army. Hordeonius was murdered by his 
own men, and Vocula had to make his escape disguised as 
a slave. 

The success of Civilis, and the intelligence of the taking 
of Rome, and the death of Vitellius, excited the Gauls to 
think of asserting their independence. Classicus, the com- 
mander of the Trevirian cavalry, opened a correspondence 
with Civilis. Julius Tutor, the prefect of the bank of the 
Rhine, and Julius Sabinus, a leading man among the Lingo- 
nians, joined with Classicus, and measures were taken to 
insure the cooperation of their countrymen. Vocula had 
information of their plans; but he felt himself too weak to 
oppose them, and he affected to give credit to their protesta- 
tions of fidelity. When, however, he marched to the relief 
of the Old Camp, Classicus and Tutor, having arranged mat- 
ters with Civilis, formed their camp apart from that of the 
legions. Vocula, having vainly essayed to reduce them to 
obedience, led, as we have seen, his army back to Novasium. 
The Gauls encamped two miles off, and (strange and novel 
event!) Classicus and Tutor succeeded in inducing the Ro- 
man soldiers to declare against their own country, and aban- 
don their general. Vocula was murdered by a deserter from 
the first legion ; his legates were confined : Classicus entered 
the camp with imperial ensigns, and the soldiers took the 
oath to the empire of the Gauls. The troops in the Old 
Camp, worn out with famine, now surrendered ; all the win- 
ter quarters beyond the Rhine, except those at Mentz and 
Windisch, {Vindonissa,) were burnt; Cologne and other 
towns submitted to the conquerors; the Gallic nations, how- 
ever, with the exception of the Trevirians and Lingonians, 
and a few others, remained faithful to Rome. Sabinus, 
causing himself to be proclaimed Caesar, invaded the terri- 
tory of the Sequanians; but his disorderly levies were totally 
routed ; and he himself, flying to one of his country-seats, 
13* 



150 VESPASIAN. [a. d. 70. 

burned it over his head, that it might be believed that he had 
perished, while he reserved himself for better times.* 

Such was the state of atfairs when Cerialis came from 
Home to conduct the German war. He fixed his head-quar- 
ters at Mentz, and the success of his first operations checked 
the progress of the rebellion. He thence advanced to Treves, 
where Civilis and Classicus, having in vain solicited him to 
assume the empire of the Gauls, resolved to give him battle. 
Early in the morning, a sudden attack was made on the Ro- 
man camp by a combined army of Gauls, Germans, and Ba- 
tavians. Cerialis, who had lain out of the camp, hastened to 
it, unarmed as he was, and found his men giving way on all 
sides. By great personal exertions he restored the battle, 
and the enemy was at length forced to retire. Civilis then, 
having received fresh troops from Germany, took his position 
at the Old Camp. Cerialis, w^ho had also been reenforced by 
two legions, followed him thither. Civilis gave him battle ; 
the contest was long doubtful ; at length, the treachery of a 
Batavian, who deserted, and conducted a body of Roman 
horse into the rear of Civilis's army, decided the fortune of 
the day. Civilis then retired with Classicus, Tutor, and 
some of the principal men of the Trevirians, into the Bata- 
vian island, whither Cerialis, for want of shipping, could not 
pursue them ; and issuing thence again, they attacked the 
Romans in various places, wdio, in turn, passed over to the 
island and ravaged it. The approach of winter, during 
which the toil of carrying on a war amidst bogs and marshes 
would be intolerable, disposed Cerialis to seek an accommo- 
dation, to which Civilis, who saw that his countrymen were 
weary of w^ar, was equally well inclined. The two leaders 
had an interview to arrange the terms. Civilis received a 
pardon; the confederates were released from all demands of 
tribute, and only required to supply troops as heretofore. 

While such was the state of affairs in the west, Titus had 
brought the Jewish war to a fortunate conclusion. 

The Jews, as we have seen, had been for some years under 
the government of a Roman president. Those selected for 
that office, such as Felix and Festus, had been usually tyran- 

* His plfice of refuge was a subterraneous cavern, where he remained 
concealed for nine years. His wife (who bore him two children in the 
cavern) and two of his freedmen alone knew of his retreat. He was 
at lengtli discovered, and led to Rome, where Vespasian, with a harsh- 
ness unusual to him, caused both him and his wife to be executed. 
Dion, Ixvi. 16. Plut. Amat. p. 1372. 



A.D. 63-64.] JEWISH WAR. 151 

nic and avaricious men j and they oppressed the people be- 
yond measure. On the other hand, the Jews, in reliance on 
the words of their prophets, looked every day for the appear- 
ance of their conquering Messiah, who was not merely to 
deliver them from bondage, but to make them lords and 
rulers over all nations. They also believed that they were 
forbidden by their law to submit to the rule of a stranger. 
From all these causes, insurrections were frequent in Judaea, 
and they were punished with great severity in the usual 
Roman manner. Bands of robbers swarmed in the country, 
among whom were particularly remarkable those called Sica- 
rians, from the dagger (sica) which they carried concealed 
in their garments, and w^ith which they used secretly to stab 
their enemies even in the open day, in the streets, and chiefly 
at the time of the great festivals. In some points they seem 
to have resembled the Assassins of a far later period. False 
prophets were also continually appearing and leading the 
people into destruction. 

In the eleventh year of Nero, (63,) Gessius Florus was 
appointed procurator of Judaea. The tyranny which he 
exercised passed all endurance, and in the second year of 
his government (64) the whole Jewish nation took up arms 
against the dominion of Rome. The Roman garrison of Je- 
rusalem was massacred ; on the other hand, great numbers 
of Jews were slaughtered at Caesarea and Alexandria, and 
they, in their turn, destroyed Samaria, Askalon, and several 
other towns. Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, seeing 
that matters had assumed so serious a form, entered the 
country at the head of a large army, and advanced as far as 
Jerusalem ; but, being foiled in the first attempts which he 
made on that city, instead of persevering, when, according to 
the most competent authority, he could have taken the city 
and prevented all the future calamities, he drew off his army 
and retired with disgrace. The Jews forthwith began to 
prepare for the war, which they now saw to be inevitable. 
They appointed military governors for all the provinces, 
among whom was Josephus, the historian of the war, to 
whom was given the province of Galilee. 

When Nero was informed by Cestius of the state of affairs 
in Juda3a, he saw the necessity of committing the conduct of 
the war to a man of military talent and experience. The 
person on whom he fixed was Vespasian, who had already 
distinguished himself both in Germany and Britain. Ves- 
pasian set forth without delay, proceeding overland to Syria, 



152 VESPASIAN. [a. d. 65-70. 

while he sent his son Titus to Egypt, to lead to him two 
legions from that province. At Antioch he received from 
Musianus, then president of Syria, one legion ; and, when 
joined by his son, he found himself at the head of an army 
of about 60,000 men, including the auxiliary troops of the 
different Asiatic princes and states. 

The Roman army rendezvoused at Ptolemais, (Acre,) 
whence it advanced into Galilee, (65.) The city of Gadara 
was taken at the first assault ; and Vespasian then laid siege 
to Jotopata, the strongest place in the province, and of which 
Josephus himself conducted the defence. The Jews, favored 
by the natural strength of the place, made a most gallant 
resistance ; but, on the forty-seventh day of the siege, a traitor 
revealed to Vespasian the secret of the actual weakness of 
the garrison, and showed how the town might be surprised. 
The city accordingly fell, and an indiscriminate massacre 
was made of all the male inhabitants. Josephus became a 
prisoner to the Roman general, by whom he was treated 
with much consideration ; and he thus had the excellent 
opportunity, of which he availed himself, for relating the 
events of the war. 

Few other places in Galilee offered resistance ; the towns 
on the coast were all in the hands of the Romans; Vespasian 
had advanced southwards and placed garrisons in Jericho 
and other towns round Jerusalem, and he was preparing to 
lay siege to that city, when he received intelligence of the 
death of Nero, (68.) He then put aside all thoughts of the 
siege for the present, waiting to see what course events 
would take in Italy, and retired to Csesarea for the winter. 
In the spring, (69,) he had resumed operations against the 
Jews, when news came of the battle of Bedriacum, and the 
elevation of Vitellius to the empire. We have already re- 
lated what thence resulted, and the consequent suspension 
of the Jewish war. 

Vespasian was at Alexandria when he heard of the death 
of Vitellius, and of himself being declared emperor by the 
senate. He resolved now to prosecute the Jewish war, and, 
Titus having left Egypt and proceeded to Caesarea early in 
the spring, (70,) and being there joined by the remainder 
of the army destined for the siege of Jerusalem, advanced 
against the devoted city, at the head of an army composed 
of four legions, with their due number of cohorts and auxil- 
iaries. As the festival of the Passover occurred about this 
time, the city was thronged with an immense number of 



A. D. to.] JEWISH WAR. 153 

people from all parts of Judaea, and the Jewish nation was 
thus, as it were, enveloped in the net of destruction. 

Of no siege, in ancient times, have the events been trans- 
mitted with the same degree of minuteness as that of Jeru- 
salem ; for Josephus, the historian of them, was a Jew of 
noble birth, and he was present in the Roman camp, and 
on a footing of friendship with Titus. Versed in both the 
Greek and Hebrew languages, and acquainted, personally, 
with the principal persons on both sides, he had the oppor- 
tunity of learning the exact truth of every event ; and his ve- 
racity has never been called in question. As the destruction 
of Jerusalem was accurately foretold by the divine Author 
of our religion, the narrative of the siege possesses additional 
importance in the eyes of all Christians. The proper place, 
however, for the detailed narration of it is the History of 
the Jews ; in the limits to which the present work is neces- 
sarily restricted, we feel it impossible to give such an ac- 
count as would content the reasonable curiosity of the reader, 
and shall therefore only aim at a general view of this ruin of 
the Jewish nation. 

The great body of the people of Jerusalem were anxious 
to submit to the Romans ; and Titus, on his part, would most 
willingly have granted them favorable terms. But all the 
robbers and Sicarians had repaired to the city, and, under 
the name of Zealots, they seized on the whole power. They 
were divided into three hostile parties, having but one prin- 
ciple in common, namely, to oppose the Romans, and to 
oppress and murder the unhappy people. In their madness, 
they early destroyed the greater part of the magazines of 
corn, and famine soon began to spread its ravages. The 
sufferings of the people were beyond description ; if they 
remained in the city, they perished of hunger ; if they were 
caught attempting to escape from it, they were barbarously 
murdered by the Zealots ; if they succeeded in making their 
escape, they were murdered by the Syrians and Arabians in 
the Roman army, for the gold, which it was discovered they 
used to swallow. 

The siege lasted for nearly seven months. The Romans 
had to carry each of the three walls, and all the quarters of 
the city, successively. Titus was anxious to save the mag- 
nificent temple of the God of Israel ; but one of the Roman 
soldiers set fire to it, and the stately edifice became a prey to 
the flames. The IJpper City, as it was named, was still 
defended, but the Romans finally carried it ; and the whole 



154 VESPASIAN. [a.d. 70. 

city, with the exception of three of the towers, left to show 
its former streniftli, was tlomolished. .losephiis computes 
the number of tlu)se w1k> })erishetl in the sioi>e and capture 
of the city at 1,100,000, and those who were made prisoners 
duiitiit- the war, at 1)7,000 pcM-sous. Of these, those uncUir 
seventeen years of age were sohl for shives ; of the rest, 
some were sent to the provinces to fiy,ht with each other, or 
with wild beasts, for tiie anuisement of the peoph> in the 
theatres J the greater part were condennied to work in tlie 
tpiarries of Egypt. 

On the occasion of the contpiest of Jerusak^n, Titus was 
sahited emperor by his army ; and, when he was abtmt to 
depart from the province, tliey insisted that he shouhl either 
remain or take them with him. Tliis, combined with tlie 
circumstance of his wearing a diadem, (though according 
to the established usage,) some time after, when consecra- 
ting the holy calf Apis at Memphis in Kgypt, gave occasion 
to a suspicion that he meditated to revolt from his father 
and establish a kingdom for himself in the I'^.ast. lie there- 
fore lost no tin>e in repairing to Italy, whither Vespasian 
had proceeded long before. When he arrived unexpected- 
ly at Rome, he addressed his father in these words : " I am 
come, fatlier, I am come," to show the absurdity of tlie re- 
ports respecting him, Vespasian, however, knew his noble 
son too well to have had any suspicion of him. lie cele- 
brated with him a joint triumph for the conquest of Jud;ea ; 
he made him his colleague in the censorship, the tribunate, 
and seven consulates, ami gave him the counnand of the 
pra3torian cohorts. He transferred to him most of the busi- 
ness of the state, authorizing him to write letters and issue 
edicts in his name, lie, in ellect, made him his colleague 
in the empire ; and he aever had occasion, for one moment, 
to regret his confidence. 

Titus Flavins Vespasianus, the present ruler of the Roman 
world, was somewhat past his sixtieth year when called to 
the empire, lie was born near Reate, in the Sabine country, 
of a family which was merely respectable. lie commenced 
his public life as a tribune in the army in Thrace; he rose 
to tlie rank of pnutor, and lie served as a legate in Germany 
and Britain, in which last country he distinguished himself 
greatly as a general, and was honored with the triumphal 
ensiiius : and he afterwards obtained the jiovernment of Atri- 
ca. Finally, as we have seen, he was selected for the con- 
duct of the Jewish war. In all the offices which he held, 



A.D. 70-79.] CHARACTER OF VESPASIAN. 155 

Vespasian had behaved with justice, honor, and humanity; 
and tliere was, perhaps, no man at the time better calculated 
for tJje important post of head of the Roman empire. 

The first cares of Vespasian were directed to the restora- 
tion of discipline in the army, and of order in the finances. 
He dischar<red a great part of the Vitellian soldiers, and he 
treated his own witli strictness, not giving them even their 
just rewards for some time, to make them sensible of his 
authority. In consequence of the vi^asteful extravagance of 
Nero, and the late civil wars, the revenues of the state were 
in such a condition, that Vespasian declared, on his acces- 
sion, that no less a sum than 40,000,000,000 sesterces were 
absolutely r(;quisite to carry on the government. He there- 
fore reestablished all the taxes that Galba had remitted, and 
imposed new ones ; he increased, and in some cases doubled, 
the tributes of the provinces; he even engaged in various 
branches of traffic, buying low and selling high. He was 
accused of selling places and pardons, and of making proc- 
urators of those known to be most rapacious, that he might 
condemn them when they were grown rich, " using them," 
as it wnti said, " as si)Oiiges, wetting them when dry, and 
squeezing them out when wet." 

Granting, however, that Vespasian was rapacious of 
money, it was not to hoard it or to squander it on pleasures. 
He was liberal both to the public and to all orders of the 
people. He rebuilt the Capitol, and he collected copies of 
the brazen tablets (three thousand in number) of the sena- 
tus-consults and plebiscits, which had been melted in the con- 
flagration. He built a temple to Peace, one to the emperor 
Claudius, and an amphitheatre which had been designed by 
Augustus. He gave large sums to various cities which had 
suffered from fires or earthquakes. He settled annual pen- 
sions on those men of consular rank who were in narrow 
circumstances. He was liberal to poets, rhetoricians, and 
artists of ail kinds. 

Early in his reign, Vespasian made a diligent examination 
of the senatorian and equestrian orders. He expelled the more 
unworthy members of both, and supplied their places with 
tlie most respectable of the Italians and the provincials. He 
seems in this to have been actuated by his military notions 
of the unity and identity which should pervade the empire; 
for the superiority of the Roman citizens was thus taken away, 
the path to all honors now lying equally open to the provincials. 
It was probably the same principle that caused him to de- 



156 VESPASIAN. [a. d. 70-79. 

prive Lycia, Cilicia, Thrace, Rhodes, Samos, and other 
places, of the independence which they had hitherto enjoyed, 
and reduce them to the form of provinces. 

Vespasian was never ashamed of the humbleness of his 
origin, and he laughed at those who attempted to deduce the 
Flavian family from one of the companions of Hercules. 
He retained no enmities ; he procured a very high match for 
the daughter of Vitellius, and gave her a dowry and outfit. 
When warned to beware of Metius Pomposianus, who was 
said to have an imperial nativity, he made him consul. Even 
during the civil war, he omitted the practice of searching 
those who came to salute the emperor. The doors of the 
palace stood always open, and there was no guard at them. 
He constantly had the senators and other persons of respecta- 
bility to dine with him, and he dined with them in return. 
In his mode of living he was simple and temperate. 

Vespasian banished the philosophers and the astrologers 
from Rome. These last were extremely mischievous, med- 
dling in all affairs of state ; and they had been objects of 
suspicion ever since the time of Augustus. In his proceed- 
ings against the philosophers, he was actuated by Mucianus, 
who represented to him that the Stoics were dangerous as 
republicans, and the Cynics as the enemies of decency and 
morality. The death of Helvidius Priscus, which is esteemed 
a stain on the memory of Vespasian, may be ascribed to his 
Stoicism and republicanism. When the emperor came to 
Rome, Helvidius addressed him as plain Vespasian ; in his 
edicts as praetor, he treated him with neglect and disrespect ; 
and in the senate behaved toward him with such insolence, 
that he quitted the house in tears. Helvidius was relegated, 
and finally put to death, we know not on what account ; but 
Vespasian is said to have sent to countermand the order 
when it was too late. 

Toward the end of his reign, a conspiracy was formed 
against him by Caecina and Marcellus, both of whom stood 
high in his friendship, and had received all the honors of 
the state. The plot being discovered, Caecina was seized as 
he was coming out from dining with the emperor, and put 
to death by the orders of Titus, lest he should raise a dis- 
turbance in the night, as he had gained over several of the 
soldiers. Marcellus, being condemned by the senate, cut his 
own throat with a razor. 

Vespasian was but once married. His wife having died 
long before he came to the empire, he lived with Caenis, the 



A.D. 79.] DEATH OF VESPASIAN. 157 

freedwoman of Antonia, whom he treated as a wife, rather 
than a mistress. He allowed her to make traffic of the 
offices of the state, by which she amassed large sums of 
money; and the emperor was suspected of sharing in her 
gains. 

This able prince had nearly completed the tenth year of 
his reign, when he was attacked by a feverish complaint, in 
Campania. He returned to the city, and thence hastened to 
his native Sabine land, about Cutiliae and Reate, where he 
was in the habit of spending the summer, and tried the cold 
springs of the place, but without effect. He attended to 
public business to the last : when he felt the approach of 
death, "An emperor," said he, "should die standing;" and 
being supported in that posture, he met his fate, in the 
seventieth year of his age. 



T. Flavins Sabinus Vespasianus II. 
A. u. 832—834. A. D. 79—81. 

Titus Flavius Vespasianus was born in the year of the 
death of the emperor Caius. He was brought up at the 
court of Claudius, as the companion of the young Britanni- 
cus. When he grew up, he served as a tribune in Germany 
and Britain, and he afterwards held a high command in the 
army of Judaea. In person, Titus was rather short, with a 
projecting stomach. He was eminently skilled in all martial 
exercises; he had a remarkable memory; could make verses 
extempore, in either Greek or Latin ; and was well skilled in 
music. He could imitate any hand-writing ; and, as he 
said himself, wanted only the will, to be the most expert of 
forgers. 

Many people feared that Titus might prove a second Nero. 
He was accused of having put various persons to death in 
the late reign, and of having taken money from others for 
his interest with his father. His revels, prolonged till mid- 
night, gave occasion to suspicions of luxury ; and the crowds 
of eunuchs, and such like persons about him, excited suspi- 
cions of a darker hue. People also feared that he would 
espouse (contrary to Roman usage) the Jewish queen Bere- 
nice, who had followed him to Rome, and lived with him 
in the palace, acting as if she were already empress. 

CONTIN. 14 



158 TITUS. [a. 1). 80-81. 

All (licHo ib;irs were, however, afj^roeably disnppoinfod; and 
Titus, when omperor, aclcd in such a luauiuT as to he justly 
nauH'd the Lovo and Dt^lioht of Mankind, lie sent away 
the lair Jewish (lueen, though it cost him u st^vere strucrrjh;,* 
He reduced his train of eunuchs; he retrenched the luvury 
of iiis tahle ; lie stsleclcMl his iViends IVoin anionij;- the hest 
men of the time. In liberality no one surpassed him; while 
preceding princes used to ret.i;ard the oifts ol' their predeces- 
sors as invalid, uid(\ss they were ^iven over aoain hy them- 
selves, Titus, unsolicited, conruiutHi hy one edict all the pre- 
cedinir grants. He could not bear to refuse any one ; and 
when those ahout him observed that he promised nu)re than 
he could perform, he rc>]>lieil, " No out; ought to retire dis- 
satisfied from the presence of the prince." At dinner, one 
time, recoUectini^ that he had done nothintr for any one that 
day, he cried, *' Friends, 1 have lost a day." 

When he took the ollice of chief pout ill", he declared that 
lie did it that he might keep his hands free from blood ; 
and during his reign not a single person was put to death. 
Though his brotluM' was constantly conspiring against him, 
lie could not he induced to treat him with rigor. When two 
patricians had been convicted of a conspiracy against him, 
he contenttHl himself with (vxhorting them to ilesist, for that 
the enn)ire was given by fate. He even tlespatched couriers 
to assure the mother of one of them of hor son's safety ; and 
he invited them to dinner, and treated them with the utmost 
confidence. \lc constantly said that he would rather die 
than cause the death of any one.t 

Titus would never allow any })rosecutions on the charge 
of treason. '' //' said he, '* cannot be injured or insulti^l, 
for 1 do nothing tleserviiig of reproach, ami I cart^ not for 
those who speak falsely ; and as for the departed emperors, 
if they are in reality demigods, and have power, they will 
avenge themsehes on those who injure them." He was very 
severer against the informers ; Ur causcul them to be beaten 
with rods and cudgels, led through the amphitheatre, and 
then to be sold for slaves, or confined in the most rugged 
islands. 

The reign of this excellent prince was marked by a series 
of public calamities. He had reigned only two months 
when a tremendous volcanic eruption, the lirst on record, 

* « IJerenicon statim ab urbo (fimisit invitns invitani." Sueton. 
i " IVritunim so pot'uis (luiini ptvnlilurmu." 



A. D. 80-81.] ERUPTION OF VKSUVIUS. 159 

from Mount V(!Siiviiis, ,s|)r(iJi.(l dismay ihroiitrh Italy. This 
inoiint.'iin luid liitli<!rto iormcd the most boiiutiCiiJ I'cfiture in 
tJie hmdscape of Campania, being clad with vines and other 
agreeable trees and plants. Earthquakes had of late years 
been of IVecjuent o(^currenc/e ; but on the 24th of A ugust tlie 
summit of the; inountain s(jnt forth a volunn; of Ihune, stones, 
and ashes, whicli spread devastation far and wide. 'J'he sky, 
to the extent of many leagues, was enveloped in the gloom of 
night; the hne dust, it was asserted, was wafted ev(;n to Kgypt 
and Syria; and at Home it rendered the sun invisible for 
many days. Men and beasts, birds and fishes, perished alike. 
The adjoining towns of l*omj)eii and llereuhmeun) were 
overwhelmed by the earthquake which attended the irrup- 
tion, and their inhabitants destroyed. Among those who lost 
th(;ir lives on this occasion, was I'liny, iUo great naturalist. 
He commanded the ileet at Misenum, and, his curiosity lead- 
ing hitn to proceed to Stabia? to view this convulsion of 
nature more closely, he was suffocated by the pestilential air. 

Titus did all in his j)ower to alleviate this great calamity. 
But while, on account of it, he was absent in Camparjia, (HO,) 
a lire broke out at Rome, which raged for three days and 
nights, and destroyed the Septa, the baths of Agrippa, the 
Pantheon, the r(;built (Ja|)itol, and a nund)er of the other 
public buildings. This was succeeded by a pestilence, 
probably the consequence of the eruption of Vesuvius, which 
Kwe|)t away numb(;rs of peo])le. Tlie enq)eror undertook to 
restore the city at his own exj)ense, refusing all the presents 
that were ofl'ered him for that purpose. He built a splendid 
am|)hitheatr(^ in the mi<ldl(; of th(3 cily, and the baths which 
bea.r his narru;. At the dedi(^-i,tion of those works, he <rave 
rn;ignilicent gajnes to the people. 

In the S(!pterrd)er of the following year, (HI,) the reign and 
life of this excellent prince came to their close. At the termi- 
nation ol'one of the public spectacles, lie was observed to burst 
into tears in presence of th(; people. Some ill omens dis- 
turbed him, and he set out for the Sabine country. On the 
first stage, he was attacked by a fever; and, as he was ])ro- 
ceeding in his litter, it is said that he looked at the sky and 
lamented that life should be taken from him undeservcully, 
as th(!re was but one act he ever did to be repent(;d of.* 
lie died at the country-house in which his father had so 
lately expired. Domitian was suspected, though apparently 

* What that act was no one knew ; and none of the conjectures are 
very probable. 



160 DOMITIAN. [a. D. 81. 

without reason, of having caused his death. Titus was only 
in his forty-first year, and had reigned little more than two 
years; fortunate perhaps in this, for, as Dion observes, had 
he lived longer, his fame might not have been so pure. 



T. Flavius Sahinus Domitianus, 
A. u. 834—849. A. D. 81—96. 

Titus Flavius Sabinus Doiiiitianus was the younger son of 
Vespasian. He was born in the year 51 ; his youth was not 
reputable ; and when, after the death of Vitellius, he exercised 
the supreme power at Rome, he gave free course to his evil 
propensities. Among other acts, he took Domitia Calvina, 
the daughter of the celebrated Corbulo, from her husband, 
/Elius Lamia, and made her his own wife. After the return of 
his father to Rome, he passed his time mostly in seclusion at 
his residence at the Alban mount, devoting himself to poetry, 
in which he made no mean progress. When his father died, 
he had some thoughts of offering a double donative to the 
soldiers, and claiming the empire ; and, as long as his brother 
lived, he was conspiring openly or secretly against him. Ere 
Titus had breathed his last, Domitian caused every one to 
abandon him, and, mounting his horse, rode to the praetorian 
camp, and caused himself to be saluted emperor by the 
soldiers. 

Like most bad emperors, Domitian commenced his reign 
with popular actions; and a portion of his good qualities 
adhered to him for some time. Such were his liberality (for 
no man was freer from avarice) and the strictness with which 
he looked after the administration of justice, both at Rome 
and in the provinces. His passion for building was extreme ; 
not content with restoring the Capitol, the Pantheon, and 
other edifices injured or destroyed by the late conflagration, 
he built or repaired several others ; and on all, old and new 
alike, he inscribed his own name, without noticing the 
original founder. 

Domitian was of a moody, melancholy temper, and he loved 
to indulge in solitude. His chief occupation, when thus 
alone, we are told, was to catch flies, and pierce them with a 
sharp writing-style ; hence Vibius Crispus, being asked one 
day if there was any one within with Caesar, replied, ** No, 
not so much as a fly." Among the better actions of the 



A. D. 83-85.] GERMAN WAR. l6l 

early years of this prince, may be noticed the following : 
He strictly forbade the abominable practice of making 
eunuchs, for which he deserves praise ; though it was said 
that his motive was not so much a love of justice as a desire 
to depreciate the memory of his brother, who had a partiality 
for these wretched beings. Domitian also at this time pun- 
ished three Vestals who had broken their vows of chastity ; 
but, instead of burying them alive, he allowed them to choose 
their mode of death. 

In the hope of acquiring military glory, he undertook (83) 
an expedition to Germany, under the pretence of chastising 
the Chattans. But he merely crossed the Rhine, pillaged 
the friendly tribes beyond it, and then, without having even 
seen the face of an enemy, returned to Rome, and celebrated 
the triumph which the senate had decreed him, dragging as 
captives slaves that he had purchased and disguised as Ger- 
mans. While, however, he was thus triumphing for imagi- 
nary conquests, real ones had been achieved in Britain by 
Cn. Julius Agricola, to whom Vespasian had committed the 
affairs of that island, (80.) He had conquered the country 
as far as the firths of Clyde and Forth, and (85) defeated the 
Caledonians in a great battle at the foot of the Grampians. 
Domitian, though inwardly grieved, affected great joy at the 
success of Agricola; he caused triumphal honors, a statue, 
and so forth, to be decreed him by the senate, and gave 
out that he intended appointing him to the government of 
Syria; but, when Agricola returned to Rome, he received 
him with coldness, and never employed him again.* 

The country on the left bank of the lower Danube, the 
modern Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, was at this 
time inhabited by a portion of the Sarmatian or Slavonian 
race named the Dacians, and remarkable for their valor. 
The extension of the Roman frontier t6 the Danube, in the 
time of Augustus, had caused occasional collisions with this 
martial race;t but no war of any magnitude occurred 
till the present reign. The prince of the Dacians at this 
time, named Decebalus, was one of those energetic char- 
acters often to be found among barbarous tribes, to whom 
nature has given all the elements of greatness, but fortune 
has assigned a narrow and inglorious stage for their exhibi- 

* See the Life of Agricola, by his son-in-law, Tacitus. 

t " Occidit Daci Cotisonis agmen." Hor. Carm. iii. 8. 18. M. 
Antonius asserted that Augustus had promised his daughter Julia in 
marriage to Cotison. Seut. Oct. 63. 

14* u 



162 DOMITIAN. [a. D. 86-88. 

tion. It was probably the desire of military glory and of 
plunder, rather than fear of the avarice of Domitian, the 
only cause assigned,* that made Decebalus at this time (86) 
set at nought the treaties subsisting with the Romans, and 
lead his martial hordes over the Danube. The troops that 
opposed them were routed and cut to pieces ; the garrisons 
and castles were taken, and apprehensions were entertained 
for the winter quarters of the legions. t The danger seemed 
so imminent, that the general wish was manifested for the 
conduct of the war being committed to Agricola ; and the 
imperial freedmen, some from good, others from evil motives, 
urged their master to compliance. But his jealousy of that 
illustrious man was invincible ; and he resolved to superin- 
tend the war in person. 

Domitian proceeded to Tllyria, where he was met by Da- 
cian deputies with proposals of peace, on condition of a capi- 
tation tax of two oboles a head being paid to Decebalus. 
The emperor forthwith ordered Cornelius Fuscus, the gov- 
ernor of Illyria, to lead his army over the Danube, and chas- 
tise the insolent barbarians. Fuscus passed the river by a 
bridge of boats ; he gained some advantages over the enemy, 
but his army was finally defeated and himself slain. | Domi- 
tian, who had returned to Rome, hastened back to the seat 
of war ; but, instead of heading his troops, he stopped in a 
town of McBsia, where he gave himself up to his usual pleas- 
ures, leaving the conduct of the war to his generals, who, 
though they met with some reverses, were in general success- 
ful ; and Decebalus was reduced to the necessity of suing 
for peace. Domitian refused to grant it; but, shortly after, 
having sustained a defeat from the Marcomaus, whom he 
wished to punish for not having assisted him against the 
Dacians, he sent to offer peace to Decebalus, The Dacian 
was not in a condition to refuse it, but he would seem to 
have dictated the terms ; and in effect an annual tribute was 
henceforth paid to him by the Roman emperor. § Domi- 
tian, however, triumphed for the Dacians and Marcomans, 
though he paid tribute to the former, and had been defeated 
by the latter. H 

During the Dacian war, (88,) L. Antonius, who com- 

* Jornandes De Reb. Goth. 13. t Tac. Agric. 41. 

t Juvenal, Sat. iv. Ill, 112. § Dion, Ixvii. 7 ; Ixviii. 6. 

II There is great confusion respecting the duration of the Dacian 
war. Eusebius makes it end in the year 90, and places the triumph 
of Domitian in the following year. See Tillemont, Hist, des Empe- 
reurs. 



a:* D. 88-94.] VICES of domitian. 163 

manded in Upper Germany, having been grossly insulted 
by the emperor, formed an alliance with the Alemans, and 
caused himself to be proclaimed emperor. But L. Maximus 
marched against him, and, the Alemans having been pre- 
vented from coming to his aid by the rising of the Rhine, 
he vv^as defeated and slain. Maximus w^isely and humanely 
burned all his papers ; but that did not prevent the tyrant 
from putting many persons to death, as concerned in the 
revolt. 

A w^ar against the Sarmatians, vv^ho had cut to pieces a 
Roman legion, is placed by the chronologists in the year 94. 
Domitian conducted it in person, after his usual manner ; 
but, instead of triumphing, he contented himself with suspend- 
ing a laurel crown in the Capitol. This is the last foreign 
transaction of his reign. 

After the first three or four years of his reign, the evil 
qualities of Domitian displayed themselves more and more 
every day. By nature a coward, his fears, increased by his 
belief in the follies of astrology, rendered him cruel, and 
the want brought on by his extravagance made him rapa- 
cious. Informers flourished anew, as in the days of Nero j 
and the blind Catullus,* Messalinus, Metius Carus, and Be- 
bius Massa, and others of the like stamp, preyed continually 
on the lives and fortunes of all men of rank and worth. 
Among the victims of the incipient cruelty of Domitian were 
the following : Metius Pomposianus, on account of his horo- 
scope, and because he had in his chamber a map of the 
world, and carried about him speeches of kings and generals 
out of Livy, and called his slaves Mago and Hannibal; Sal- 
vius Coccianus, for celebrating the birthday of his uncle 
Otho; Sallustius Lucullus, for having given his name to a 
new kind of lance ; the sophist Maternus, for a declamation 
against tyrants ; ^lius Lamia, (whose wife he had taken from 
him,) for some jokes in the time of Titus. 

The tyranny of Domitian at length passed all bounds. 
Tacitus describes the senate-house invested by soldiery; 
consulars slaughtered ; women of the highest rank banished ; 
the isles filled with exiles, the racks dyed with their blood ; 
slaves and freedmen corrupted to give false evidence against 
their masters; nobility, wealth, honors, above all, virtue, the 
sure causes of ruin; rewards lavished on informers and ac- 
cusers ; all the vices and all the virtues called into action. t 

At this time, Helvidius, the son of Helvidius Priscus, was 

* Juvenal, Sat. iv. 113, seq + Agric. 45. Hist. i. 2, 3. 



164 DOMtTIAN. [a. d, 84-96. 

put to death for having made an interlude on the emperor's 
divorce, of which the characters were Paris and QEnone; 
and Herennius Senecio, for having written the life of Hel- 
vidius Priscus. A panegyric on Thrasea and Helvidius was 
also fatal to its author, Junius Rusticus, a Stoic ; and Her- 
mogenes of Tarsus, from some supposed allusions in his his- 
tory, was put to death, and the booksellers that sold it were 
crucified. After the condemnation of Rusticus, all the phi- 
losophers were banished from Italy. 

Like Nero, whom he resembled in some points, Domitian 
was capricious in his cruelty. When, at the shows which 
followed his triumph, a tempest of rain came on, he would 
not allow any one to quit the place and seek shelter. He 
himself also remained ; but he had several cloaks, and changed 
them as they became wet. Many of the spectators died in 
consequence of colds and fevers. To console them, he in- 
vited them to a public supper, which lasted all through the 
night. He gave the senate and knights also a curious supper 
at the same time. The room in which he received them 
was made perfectly black; the seats were black; by each 
stood a monumental pillar with the name of the guest on it, 
and a sepulchral lamp ; naked slaves, blackened to resemble 
spectres, came in and danced a horrid measure around them, 
and then each seated himself at the feet of a guest ; the 
funeral meats were then brought in black vessels. All sat 
quaking in silence ; Domitian alone spoke, and his discourse 
was of death. At length he dismissed them ; but at the 
porch, instead of their own attendants, they found strange 
ones, with chairs and sedans to convey them to their houses. 
When they were at home, and began to respire freely, word 
came to each that one was come from the emperor ; terror 
returned, but it was agreeably dispelled by finding that the 
pillar, which was silver, the supper utensils, of valuable mate- 
rials, and the slave who had played the ghost, were arrived 
as presents from the palace. 

Domitian exhibited, about this time, a specimen of politi- 
cal economy by no means despicable, were not the evil which 
he proposed to amend already beyond remedy. Wine prov- 
ing very plentiful and corn very scarce in Italy, he issued 
an edict (92) forbidding any new vineyards to be planted in 
Italy, and ordering one half of those in the provinces to be 
cut down. This edict, it may readily be supposed, was but 
partially carried into effect. 

The year of Domitian's triumph was also distinguished by 



A. D. 84--96.] VICES OF DOMITIAN. 165 

the death of Cornelia, the eldest of the Vestals, accused of 
breach of chastity. She was buried alive, in the ancient 
manner, and underwent her cruel fate with the greatest con- 
stancy and dignity. She does not appear to have had a fair 
trial, and many strongly doubted of her guilt.* 

The emperor, so rigorous in punishing breach of chastity 
in others, was, as usual, indulgent to himself on this head. 
His brother Titus had wished him to put away Domitia, and 
marry his daughter Julia : he refused ; yet, when Julia was 
married to another, he seduced her; and when her father 
and husband were dead, he cohabited openly with her, and 
is said to have caused her death, by giving her drugs to pro- 
cure abortion. t As for Domitia, he divorced her on account 
of an intrigue with Paris the actor, whom he put to death ; 
but he took her back soon after, pretending a willingness to 
gratify the desire of the people. 

Domitian met with the usual fate of tyrants; he perished 
by a conspiracy. It is said | that he kept under his pillow a 
list of those whom he intended to put to death, and that one 
day, as he was sleeping, a favorite little boy, who was in the 
room, carried it away. Domitia, meeting the child, took it 
from him, and, to her surprise, found her own name in it, 
along with those of Norbanus and Petronius, the prefects of 
the praetorians, Parthenius, the chamberlain, and some others. 
She immediately informed those concerned, and they re- 
solved to anticipate the tyrant. 

Domitian had lately put to death his cousin Clemens, one 
of whose freedmen, named Stephanus, who acted as steward 
to his wife Doraitilla, being accused of malversation in his 
office, engaged in the conspiracy, and, being a strong man, 
undertook the task of killing the tyrant. It was arranged 
that the attack should be made on him in his chamber; and 
Parthenius removed the sword which was usually under his 
pillow. Stephanus, for some days previously, had his arm 
bandaged, as if hurt, in order to be able to conceal a dagger ; 
and on the 18th of September, (96,) when Domitian, after 
sitting in judgment, retired to his chamber to repose, before 
going into the bath, Parthenius presented Stephanus to him 
as one who could inform him of a conspiracy. While he was 
reading the paper handed to him, Stephanus struck him in 

* Plin. Ep. iy. 11. t Suet. Dom. 22. Juvenal, Sat. ii. 32. 

t Dion (Ixvii.) says that he had heard it. Suetonius does not seem 
to have known it. We shall find the same told of Commodus. The 
circumstance is by no means improbable. 



166 Literature. [a. d. 96. 

the belly. He called out to a slave to reach him the sword 
that was under his pillow, but it was gone ; others of the 
conspirators then rushed in, and the tyrant was despatched 
with seven wounds. He was in the forty-fifth year of his age, 
and the fifteenth of his reign. 



The reigns of the Flavian family, and of their immediate 
successors, may be regarded as the last period of Roman 
literature. It exhibits the decline of taste, though not of 
genius, as compared with the Augustan age. In its loftiest as 
in its meanest performances, we discern the influence of a 
corrupt and degenerate generation ; the noble and virtuous 
writer describes the ruling vice with horror, while the mer- 
cenary flatterer portrays it for the gratification of his patrons. 

Among the poets, the first place is due to P. Statins Papi- 
nius, who wrote a poem in twelve books on the mythic wars 
of Thebes, and commenced another on the life and actions 
of Achilles. We also possess five books of Silvse, or occa- 
sional poems by this writer, which are generally (not, how- 
ever, we should think, as poems) considered to be of more 
value than his Thebais. C. Valerius Flaccus also selected 
a mythologic subject. His Argonautics is imperfect; but 
it exhibits poetic spirit and more originality than might have 
been expected. C. Silius Italicus, following the example of 
Ennius and Lucan in writing epic history, composed a poem, 
in eighteen books, on the second Punic war. But nature had 
refused him inspiration ; and polished verse, close imitation 
of Virgil, and rhetorical expression, occupy the place of 
poetry in his tedious work. The field of satire, over which 
Horace had passed with such light-footed gayety, and which 
Persius had trodden in the dignity of virtue, was now occu- 
pied by D. Junius Juvenalis, a writer of an ardent rhetorical 
spirit, who lashes vice with terrific energy, and displays it in 
the most appalling colors, his pictures being perhaps too true 
to nature ; but his veneration for virtue is sincere, and in- 
dignation at beholding it oppressed and vice triumphant is 
his muse. M. Valerius Martialis, a Spaniard by birth, has 
left fourteen books of terse and pointed epigrams, in which, 
however, little of the poetic spirit is to be discerned. 

It was also at this time that C. Cornelius Tacitus wrote 
his Annals and Histories, which place him on a line with 
Thucydides for deep insight into human nature and its 



A. D. 96.] NERVA. 167 

springs of action. C. Suetonius Tranquillus was a diligent 
collector of anecdotes ; his work contains no original thoughts 
or sentiments. M. Fabius duintilianus, a Spaniard, a teacher 
of rhetoric, has left a valuable work on his art. The Natural 
History of C. Plinius Secundus is a vast repository of nearly 
all that was known on that subject at the time. The Letters 
of his nephew, the younger Pliny, exhibit a highly-cultivated 
mind and a most amiable disposition. 



CHAPTER HI.* 

NERVA. TRAJAN. HADRIAN. ANTONINUS. 
AURELIUS. 

A. u. 849—933. A. D. 96—180. 

NERVA. ADOPTION OF TRAJAN. HIS ORIGIN AND CHARAC- 
TER. DACIAN WARS. PARTHIAN WARS. DEATH OP 

TRAJAN. OBSERVATIONS. SUCCESSION OF HADRIAN. 

HIS CHARACTER. AFFAIRS AT ROME. HADRIAN IN GAUL 

AND BRITAIN IN ASIA AND GREECE IN EGYPT. AN- 

TINOUS. ADOPTIONS. DEATH OF HADRIAN. HIS CHAR- 
ACTER AS AN EMPEROR. REBELLION OF THE JEWS. 

REIGN OF ANTONINUS PIUS. M. AURELIUS. PARTHIAN 

WAR. GERMAN WARS. — - REVOLT OF CASSIUS. DEATH 

OF AURELIUS. HIS CHARACTER. 

M. Cocceius Nerva. 
A. u. 849—851. A. D. 96—98. 

The death of Domitian filled the senate with joy ; the peo- 
ple appeared indifferent ; the soldiers were anxious to avenge 
him. They were, however, without leaders, and they were 
finally induced by their prefects to acquiesce in the choice 
of the senate. 

The person on whom this choice fell was M. Cocceius 
Nerva, a senator of a consular family, and who had himself 

* Authorities : Dion Cassius, the Augustan History, and the Epi- 
tomators. 



168 NERVA. [a.d. 97. 

borne the principal offices m the state. He was now in the 
sixty-fourth year of his age ; he was a man of the most amia- 
ble temper, yet not devoid of energy and activity, but mild 
and clement even to a fault. To reverse the acts of his 
predecessor was the first care of Nerva. The banished were 
recalled, and their properties restored to them ; accusations 
of treason were quashed ; severe laws were enacted against 
delators ; slaves and freedmen, who had accused their mas- 
ters, were put to death. Nerva reduced the taxes, andmade 
so many other beneficent regulations, that men expected a 
golden age under his mild domination. 

It was not long, however, before a conspiracy was formed 
to deprive the empire of this excellent prince, (97.) The 
head of it was a nobleman named Calpurnius Crassus, who, 
by lavish promises, solicited the soldiers to revolt. Nerva 
imitated the conduct of Titus on a similar occasion. He 
put the swords of the gladiators into the hands of the con- 
spirators, as they sat with him at a public spectacle ; and 
he contented himself with banishing Crassus to Tarentum. 
The praetorians, who longed to avenge Domitian, soon, how- 
ever, found a leader in their commander, ^Elianus Casperius ; 
and they besieged the emperor in his palace, demanding the 
lives of those who had slain his predecessor. Nerva, it is 
said, showed outward marks of fear ; but he acted with spirit, 
and refused to give them up, stretching out his neck for the 
soldiers to strike off his head, if they wished. But all availed 
not ; he was forced to abandon them to their fate ; and Petro- 
nius and Parthenius were slain, the latter with circumstances 
of great barbarity. Casperius even forced the emperor to 
thank the soldiers, in presence of the people, for having put 
to death the worst of men. 

This insolence of the praetorians proved advantageous to 
the state. Nerva saw the necessity of a more vigorous hand 
to hold the reins of empire. More solicitous for the wel- 
fare of his country than the elevation of his family, he passed 
over his relations, and fixed on M. Ulpius Trajanus, the com- 
mander of the army of Lower Germany, to be his adopted 
son and successor. On the occasion of a victory being 
gained over the Alemans, in Pannonia, he ascended the 
Capitol, to deposit there the laurel which had been sent him 
according to usage, and he then, in presence of the people, de- 
clared his adoption of Trajan, to whom he shortly after gave 
the titles of Caesar and Germanicus, and then that of emperor, 
with the tribunitian power, thus making him his colleague. 



A. D. 99.] CHARACTER OF TRAJAN. 169 

The good emperor did not long survive this disinterested 
act. He died in the beginning of the following year, (98,) 
regretted by both senate and people ; and his ashes were de- 
posited in the monument of Augustus. 



M. Ulpius Trajanus Crinitus. 
A. u. 851—870. A. D. 98—117. 

M. Ulpius Trajanus was born at a town named Italica, 
near Seville, in Spain. He early devoted himself to a mil- 
itary life, and served as a tribune under his father, as it would 
appear. He was afterwards praetor and consul ; after his 
consulate, he retired to his native country, whence he was 
summoned by Domitian, to take the command in Lower Ger- 
many. 

Trajan had all the qualities of mind and body that form 
the perfect soldier. He was rigid in discipline, but affable 
in manner; hence he possessed both the love and the respect 
of his men, and the tidings of his adoption to the empire were 
received with joy by all the armies. He received at Cologne 
-the account of the death of his adoptive father ; but, instead 
of proceeding to Rome, he remained till the following year, 
regulating the affairs of the German frontier, and enforcing 
discipline in the army. During this time, he summoned to 
his presence Casperius and the mutinous praetorians, and 
punished them for their insolence to the late emperor. 

At length, (99,) he set out for Rome, where he was re- 
ceived with unbounded joy. He made his entry on foot, and 
ascended the Capitol, and then proceeded to the palace. 
His wife, Plotina, who was with him, turned round as she 
was going up the steps, ' and said aloud to the people, " I 
enter here such as I wish to go out of it." She kept her 
word ; for her influence was exerted only for good as long 
as she lived. 

Trajan remained for nearly two years at Rome, occupied 
in the arts of peace. His only object seems to have been 
the promotion of the happiness of those over whom he ruled. 
The senate enjoyed the highest consideration ; the prince, 
like Vespasian and Titus, lived on terms of the most cordial 
intimacy with its members; and the best men of the times 
were ranked as his friends. Justice was administered with 
impartiality ; the vile brood of delators was finally crushed ; 

CONTIN. 15 V 



170 TRAJAN. [a.D. 101-105. 

oppressive taxes were reduced or abolished ; the greatest 
care was taken to secure a regular supply of food to the 
people. 

But the military genius of the emperor could not long 
brook inactivity, and he seized an early occasion of engaging 
in war with the Dacians. He observed that the power of 
this people was on the increase ; he disdained to pay the 
tribute conceded by Domitian ; and Decebalus had, it is 
further said, entered into relations with the Parthians. Tra- 
jan, therefore, crossed the Danube (101) at the head of a 
large army ; the Dacians gave him battle, but were defeated 
with great slaughter ; the Romans also suffered so severely, 
that the emperor had to tear up his own garments to make 
bandages for the wounded. Decebalus sent his nobles in 
vain to solicit peace ; the emperor and his generals pushed 
on their successes ; height after height was won ; the Dacian 
capital, named Zermizegethusa, was taken, and Decebalus 
was at length obliged to consent to receive peace on the 
terms usual in the days of the republic ; namely, the surren- 
der of arms, artillery, and deserters, the dismantling of for- 
tresses, the abandonment of conquests, and an offensive and 
defensive alliance with Rome. Trajan, having left garrisons 
in the capital and some other strong places, returned to Italy, 
and triumphed, taking the title of Dacicus. 

Decebalus, though he submitted for the present, was pre- 
paring for future war ; he collected arms, received deserters, 
and repaired his fortresses. He invited his neighbors to aid 
him, showing that if they suffered him to be destroyed, their 
own subjection would inevitably follow. He thus induced 
many to join him; and he made war on some of those who 
refused. War being therefore again declared against the 
Dacian prince, (104,) Trajan put himself at the head of his 
army, and fixed his head-quarters in Moesia. Here he occu- 
pied himself in raising one of his most magnificent works, a 
bridge of stone over the Danube. It consisted of twenty- 
one arches, each one hundred and seventy feet in span, the 
piers being one hundred and fifty feet in height, and sixty in 
breadth. A castle was built at either end, to defend it;* 
and, when it was completed, Trajan passed over the river, 
(105.) No great action seems to have ensued; but the 
troops of Decebalus were routed in detail, and his fortresses 

* The site of this bridge, which was destroyed by Hadrian, is un- 
known. It is supposed to have been between Visninac and Widin. 



A. D. 106, 107.] TRAJAN IN ARMENIA. 171 

captured one after another. Seeing all hope gone, the 
brave but unfortunate prince put an end to himself Dacia 
was then reduced to the form of a province, and numerous 
Roman colonies v^^ere established in it. On his return to 
Rome, (106,) where he found numerous embassies, even one 
from India, awaiting him, Trajan celebrated his second tri- 
umph ; after which he gave games that lasted one hundred 
and twenty-three days, in which 11,000 animals were 
slaughtered, and 10,000 gladiators fought. 

The warlike spirit of Trajan could not remain at rest; 
and he soon undertook an expedition to the East. The 
pretext was, that the king of Armenia had received his dia- 
dem from the Parthian monarch instead of the Roman em- 
peror; the real cause was Trajan's lust of military glory. 
The condition of the Parthian empire at this time was 
favorable to his views ; it was verging fast to its decline, and 
was torn by intestine convulsions, the sure forerunners of 
national dissolution. 

The Armenian king at this time was named Exedares, 
probably a son or grandson of Tiridates. Chosroes, the 
Parthian king, however, deposed him, and gave the king- 
dom to Parthamasiris, his own nephew, when he found that 
Trajan was on his way to the East, and despatched an em- 
bassy, (which met the emperor at Athens,) bearing presents, 
and praying that he would send the diadem to the new 
prince. Trajan was not, however, to be diverted from his 
purpose; he merely replied that friendship was to be shown 
by deeds rather than by words, and continued his march for 
Syria. He reached Antioch in the first week of January, 
(107;) and, having made all the necessary preparations, he 
led his troops into Armenia. The various princes and 
chieftains of the country met him with presents ; resistance 
was nowhere offered ; and, at a place named Elegeia, Partha- 
masiris himself entered the Roman camp, and laid his diadem 
at the feet of the emperor. Perceiving that he was not de- 
sired to resume it, and being terrified by the shouts of the 
soldiers, who saluted Trajan Imperator , he craved a private 
audience ; but, finding that Trajan had no intention of ac- 
ceding to his request, he sprang out of the tent, and was 
quitting the camp in a rage, when Trajan had him recalled, 
and, from the tribunal, told him that Armenia belonged to 
the Romans, and should have a Roman governor, but that 
he was at liberty to go whither he pleased. His Armenian 
attendants were then detained as Roman subjects, and him- 



172 TRAJAN. [a.d. 107-116. 

self and his Parthians were dismissed under charge of an 
escort of horse. Parthamasiris fell some time after in an 
action, and Armenia was reduced to a Roman province. 
The kings of the nations of the Caucasus, and around the 
Euxine Sea, acknowledged the supremacy of Rome. Trajan 
then led his army into Mesopotamia, all whose princes sub- 
mitted to his authority. He took the city of Nisibis, and 
Chosroes was obliged to conclude a treaty with him, and 
even, it is said, to implore his aid against his rebellious 
subjects. On his return to Rome, Trajan assumed the title 
of Parthicus. 

The history of the reign of this celebrated emperor has 
come down to us in so very imperfect a form, that it is 
utterly impossible to ascertain how long he remained in the 
East, or when he came back to Italy. All we know is, that 
he did return to Rome, and staid there till the year 114, 
when we find him again in Syria, preparing for a war with 
the Parthians, the cause of which is not assigned. In the 
spring of this year, he entered Mesopotamia. The Parthians 
prepared to defend the passage of the Tigris ; but Trajan 
had caused boats to be framed in the forests about Nisibis, 
and conveyed on wagons with the army. A bridge of boats 
was speedily constructed, and the enemy retired, after having 
vainly attempted to impede the passage of the Romans. 
The whole of Adiabene submitted; and Trajan, as it would 
appear, returned to the Euphrates, for we are told that he 
visited Babylon, and inspected the sources of the bitumen 
used for constructing its walls. He also, it is added, set 
about clearing the Nahar-malca, [Kings' -river,) or canal, 
which formerly connected the Euphrates and Tigris, in 
order to convey boats along it for the passage of this last 
river. But he gave up the attempt, and, carrying the boats, 
as before, on wagons, he set his army over the Tigris, and 
captured Ctesiphon, the Parthian capital.* He formed the 
conquered country into the provinces of Assyria and Meso- 
potamia, and then, (116,) embarking on the Tigris, sailed 
down it, and entered the Persian Gulf. Seeing there, we are 
told, a vessel under sail for India, he declared that, if he 
was a young man, he would certainly penetrate to that re- 
mote country, and advance further than even the great 
Macedonian conqueror, whom he extolled and eulogized. 

* Ctesiphon lay on the left bank of the Tigris, twenty miles south 
of the modern Baghdad. The city of Seleucia stood on the opposite 
side of the river, and was a suburb to it. 



A. D. 117.] DEATH OF TRAJAN. 173 

It is probable that Trajan returned up the Euphrates ; for 
he was apparently at Babylon * when he learned that all the 
conquered countries had revolted, and driven away or slain 
the Roman garrisons. He sent his generals Maxirnus and 
Lusius Quietus to reduce them. The former was defeated 
and slain, but the latter recovered Nisibis, and took and 
burned Edessa : the city of Seleucia met with a similar fate 
from those sent against it. In order to keep the Parthians 
at rest, Trajan returned to Ctesiphon, and, asseinbling the 
inhabitants and his soldiers in the adjoining plain, he as- 
cended a lofty tribunal, and, having expatiated on his own 
exploits, he placed the diadem on the head of Parthamas- 
pates, one of the rival candidates for the throne, declaring 
him king of the Parthians. 

A portion of the Arabs of Mesopotamia having submitted 
to him, Trajan had formed a province of Arabia. But the 
Arabs loved independence too much to remain long in obe- 
dience, and the emperor found it necessary (117) to besiege 
in person a strong town belonging to them named Atra, 
which lay not far from the Tigris. The desert nature of 
the surrounding country, the extreme heat, the swarms of 
mosquitoes and other insects, together with tempests of 
thunder, hail, and rain, which occurred, soon obliged him to 
raise the siege and retire; and, shortly after, he fell sick, 
and, leaving the command in the East with his relative 
Hadrian, he set out on his return to Italy. But, at Selinus 
in Cilicia, he had a severe attack of dysentery, which carried 
him off in a few days, in the sixty-third year of his age, after 
a reign of twenty years all to about six months. His ashes 
were conveyed to Rome, and placed beneath the column 
raised in his Forum to commemorate his Dacian wars, and 
which still remains in that city. 

Imperfect as are the narratives which we possess of the 
reign of this prince, the testimony so unanimously borne to 
his virtues places them beyond dispute. Nearly three cen- 
turies after his death, the acclamation of the senate to their 
emperors continued to be, "May you be more fortunate 
than Augustus, and better than Trajan ! " t In the Pane- 

* Ma^oiv Ss ravra 6 Tqa'iavog h nf.oico (xal y^'^Q i^^^f^e tjX-Ss xara 
Ts ri-jV iptjliir]v 7jg ovdev a^iov slSsv, o Ti ^li] _;fa)|UaTa xal ^vd'OVq xai Iqt'mia, 
xat St'arov iAli^avSqov m xal ivtjytaev iv rco oixijixan iv <o fTETeXtvrt'jXsi.) 
Dion, Ixviii. 30. For n/ioico, we read with Tillemont Bu^vl<avi, as the 
only word which gives sense to the passage. It was certainly there 
that Alexander died. 

t " Felicior Augusto melior 'Drajano." Eutrop. viii. 5. 
15* 



174 HADRIAN. [a. D. 117. 

gyric of Pliny, the emperor is without a fault ; but we learn 
from the less courtly epitomators that Trajan was so devoted 
to wine and the pleasures of the table, that he found it 
necessary to give directions that any orders which he issued 
after his prolonged meals should not be regarded; and, while 
the panegyrist lauds his chastity, truth accuses him of be- 
ing immoderately addicted to the vice which degraded the 
ancient world. In his lust of conquest, Trajan evinced lit- 
tle political wisdom. The prudent Augustus advised his 
successors to be content with the limits of the empire which 
he had left ; and the Danube and Euphrates formed natural 
boundaries. This sage advice was first neglected by the 
stupid Claudius ; but the conquest of Britain was not diffi- 
cult, and an island once won is easily retained ; but the ac- 
quisitions of Trajan could only be held by a large military 
force; and the best proof of his want of judgment in making 
them, is the fact that his Eastern conquests were abandoned 
at once by Hadrian, and Dacia, in about a century and a half 
after his death, by one of his ablest successors. 



P. Julius Hadrianus. 
a. u. 870—891. A. D. 117—138. 

The successor of Trajan was his kinsman, P. iElius Ha- 
drianus, who was of a family of Italica, but born at Rome. 
Hadrian being left an orphan at the age of ten years, his 
guardians were Trajan, and a knight named Tatianus. He 
applied himself diligently to study, and became equally 
skilled in the Greek and Latin languages. He entered the 
army as a tribune in the time of Domitian. When Trajan 
attained the empire, Hadrian, through the influence of his 
secretary Sura, rose in favor with him ; the empress Plotina 
also patronized him, and prevailed on Trajan to give him in 
marriage his niece Sabina. He gradually discharged the 
principal civil and military offices of the state, and it was 
generally understood that the emperor intended to adopt 
him. 

It is not by any means certain that the adoption actually 
took place. Dion assures us, on what may be regarded as 
good authority, that the whole affair was managed by Plotina 
and Tatianus, who prepared the letters of adoption, conceal- 
ing the death of Trajan some days for the purpose, and for- 



A.D. 118-119.] HADRIAN. 175 

warded them to Hadrian, who had remained at Antioch. At 
all events, the succession was undisputed. Hadrian, having 
caused himself to be proclaimed emperor, wrote to the 
senate, excusing it, under the plea of its being unsafe to 
leave the empire without a head, praying them to confirm 
him in it, and not to confer any honors on him, unless he 
should himself request them, and making lavish promises of 
good government. He made Tatianus and Similis (the lat- 
ter a man of the noblest and most virtuous character) pre- 
fects of the praetorians. He wisely resolved to make the 
Euphrates, as before, the eastern boundary of the empire, 
and to abandon the useless conquests of Trajan; and he 
therefore withdrew all the Roman garrisons from beyond that 
river. These affairs detained him for some time in the East, 
and he did not arrive in Rome till the following year, (118.) 

Hadrian's character was a strange mixture of good and ill 
qualities, but vanity was its predominant feature. His abili- 
ties were much above mediocrity ; but, not content with the 
knowledge adapted to his rank and situation, he would fain 
be a proficient in all arts and sciences. He studied medi- 
cine and mathematics; he painted, engraved, sang, and 
played on musical instruments. He was a poet and a critic, 
and he showed his caprice or his bad taste, by preferring 
Antimachus (the author of a Thebai's) to Homer, and En- 
nius to Virgil. At the same time, he claimed the highest 
proficiency in civil and military qualities, and, as was nat- 
ural in a person of this character, he was envious and jeal- 
ous of all those who excelled in what he made pretensions 
to, and he even put many of them to death. 

Hadrian remained for about two years in Italy, during 
which time, however, he made one expedition to the banks 
of the Danube, against the Sarmatians. On this occasion, 
he broke down the arches of Trajan's bridge, under the pre- 
text that it only served to facilitate the irruptions of the bar- 
barians. At Rome, he distinguished himself by his atten- 
tion to the administration of justice, (the brightest spot in his 
character,) and by the liberality with which he remitted all 
the debts due to the fisc for the last sixteen years, burning 
publicly all the accounts and obligations. 

While Hadrian was away from Rome, (119,) various per- 
sons of rank and wealth were put to death on sundry pre- 
texts. Of these, the most distinguished were the four con- 
sulars, Cornelius Palma, Celsus, Domitius Nigrinus, and 



176 HADRIAN. [a. D. 120-121. 

Lusius duietus, all favorites of the late emperor. The 
charge against them was the having conspired to murder 
Hadrian when sacrificing, or, as others said, hunting, and to 
give the empire to Nigrinus, whom he had designed for his 
successor; but their real guilt appears to have been their 
wealth and influence. They were all put to death in the 
different places where they were found, by order of the sen- 
ate, against the will of Hadrian, as he pretended. He re- 
turned to Rome on occasion of this affair, when, to silence 
the murmurs of the people, he gave them a double congiary ; 
and he swore to the senate that he would never punish a 
senator, unless when condemned by themselves. 

At this period also there was a change made in the pre 
fecture of the praetorians. The upright Similis, who had 
accepted the charge against his inclination, asked and ob- 
tained permission to resign ; * and Tatianus, whose power 
was become too great to be endured by the jealous emperor, 
was induced by him to ask for a successor. Hadrian, who 
had cast on him the odium of the kte executions, had at first 
thoughts of putting him to death * but he contented himself 
with making him quit his important post, and accept the 
rank of a senator. The new prefects were Marcius Turbo, 
a man of most excellent character, and an able officer, and 
Septitius Clarus. 

In the year 120, as it would appear, Hadrian commenced 
visiting the various provinces of the empire — a practice in 
which he passed nearly the whole of his reign. Restlessness 
and curiosity seem to have been his principal motives ; but 
his presence proved of essential benefit to the provinces. 
He saw with his own eyes their real condition ; he looked 
into the conduct of their governors, and punished those who 
were guilty of fraud or oppression ; he adorned their towns 
with public buildings, and he bestowed money liberally where 
any calamities had occurred. 

Hadrian first visited Gaul ; he thence proceeded to the 
Germanies, where he carefully inspected the troops, made 
sundry judicious regulations respecting the service, and re- 
stored the discipline, which had fallen into neglect. He 
thence (121) passed over to Britain, inspected the troops 

* He retired to the country, where he spent the remaining seven 
years of his life. On his tomb he caused to be inscribed, " Here lies 
Similis, who existed ((iiovg) so many years, and lived (tijOag) seven.' 
Dion, Ixix. 19. 



A. D. 122-132.] HADRIAN. 177 

there, reformed abuses, and, to secure the conquered and 
civilized portion of the island from the incursions of the bar- 
barous Caledonians, he erected a strong wall, eighty miles in 
length, running from the mouth of the Tyne to the Sol way 
Firth. He then returned to Gaul, and he spent his winter 
at Tarragona, in Spain. Some troubles in Africa drew him 
over to that country in the following year, (122.) It is not 
known where he spent the winter^ but we find him the next 
year (123) in Asia, where a war with the Parthians had 
been on the point of breaking out. Having averted this 
danger, he spent a year rambling through Syria and Asia 
Minor, and then (124) visited the isles of the ^gsean, and 
finally came to Athens, where he passed the winter. He 
was initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, and he conferred 
many favors on the people of Athens. From Greece, he 
passed over to Sicily, (125,) in order to ascend Mount ^tna, 
and witness from its summit the rising of the sun. He then 
returned to Rome, where he appears to have remained till 
the year 129, when he again visited Africa, and conferred 
many benefits on the provincials. The following year, (130,) 
he set out for Asia, and, while there, he was waited on by 
most of the princes from about the Euxine and Caucasus. 
He sent back to Chosroes his daughter, who had been made 
a captive by Trajan, at the taking of Ctesiphon. He visited 
Syria, Judaea, and Arabia, every where making regulations 
and punishing evil governors, and at length (132) arrived at 
Alexandria in Egypt, where he remained for more than a 
year. On his way thither, he had visited and repaired the 
tomb of Pompeius the Great, remarking, in an extemporary 
Greek verse, how strange it was, that he who had so many 
temples should scarcely have a tomb. 

The death of the celebrated Antinoiis occurred while Ha- 
drian was in Egypt. This was a beautiful youth, a native 
of Bithynia, beloved, after the unnatural but prevalent fash- 
ion of the age, by the emperor. According to Hadrian's 
own account, he fell into the Nile and was drowned ; others 
said that, like the Alcestis of Grecian fable, he devoted him- 
self, according to the superstition of the age, to prolong the 
days of the emperor; while others affirm that Hadrian, who 
was curious about magic arts, sacrificed him in order to pry 
into futurity by the inspection of his entrails. The extreme 
grief of the emperor at his loss gives probability to the first 
account, but is not inconsistent with the second. He built 



118 HADRIAN. [a. d. 134-138. 

a town, named after him, where he died ; he set up statues 
of him all over the empire ; the Greeks, at his desire, de- 
clared him to be a god, and temples were raised and oracles 
ascribed to him ; in fine, a new star, observed at this time, 
was pronounced to be the soul of Antinoiis. 

Hadrian at length (134) quitted Egypt, and, returning 
through Syria and Asia, came and passed another winter at 
Athens. He was now admitted to the Greater Mysteries ; 
and he was, in return, lavish of benefits to the Athenians, and 
he adorned their city with many stately edifices. In the 
spring, (135,) he returned to Rome, and, his health being 
now in a declining state, and having no offspring, he resolved 
to adopt a successor. His choice, after long consideration, 
fixed on L. Ceionius Commodus Verus, a man of noble birth 
and of literary taste, but sunk in indolence and volup- 
tuousness, and delicate in health. After the adoption of 
Verus, Hadrian retired from the city, and fixed his abode at 
Tibur, where he devoted himself chiefly to the cultivation 
of the fine arts. His disorder still continuing, he became 
peevish and cruel; and he put to death, or forced to die, sev- 
eral men of rank, among whom was his own brother-in-law 
Servianus, a man of ninety years of age. 

Verus, who had been sent to take the command in Panno- 
nia, returned to Rome in the end of the year 137. He had 
prepared an address to make to the emperor on new year's 
day, but, having taken an opiate to settle his nerves, the dose 
proved too powerful, and he fell asleep, never to wake. Ha- 
drian then fixed on a senator named T. Aurelius Antoninus, 
a man of most excellent character, as his successor, and he 
adopted him, making Antoninus, who was childless, adopt 
his wife's nephew, M Annius Verus, and L. iElius Verus, 
the son of the late Commodus Verus. 

His disease, which appears to have been dropsy, growing 
worse and worse every day, Hadrian felt life to be a burden, 
of which he was anxious to be relieved. He implored in 
vain those about him to give him a sword or poison, that he 
might terminate his sufferings; and Antoninus watched over 
him assiduously. The irritation of his mind, it is said, made 
him become daily more cruel. He ordered several senators 
to be put to death ; but Antoninus saved them by pretending 
that the orders had been executed. At length he retired to 
Baiae, and neglected all regimen, using the common saymg 
that " many doctors killed a king." He died on the 10th 



A. D. 138.] DEATH OF HADRIAN. 179 

of July, 138,* in the sixty-third year of his age, and after a 
reign of twenty-one years, wanting a month. The senate, 
on account of his late cruelties, proposed at first to abrogate 
all his acts, and refused him the usual honors ; but they 
yielded to the arguments and tears of Antoninus, and Ha- 
drian was deified, and his ashes consigned to the splen- 
did mausoleum which he had raised on the banks of the 
Tiber.t 

The merits of Hadrian as a monarch, however, far out- 
numbered his defects. He maintained peace and plenty in 
the interior of the state, and he kept the army in a condition 
of the greatest efficiency. Justice was carefully adminis- 
tered, and he was the author of many beneficent laws and 
regulations. Among these may be observed those in favor 
of the slaves. Hitherto the law had been, that, if a master 
was assassinated in his house, all the slaves in it should be 
put to death. Hadrian directed that none should even be 
put to the torture, except those who were within hearing at 
the time. He also took from masters the power of life and 
death over their slaves, and ordered that no slave should be 
put to death without the sentence of a magistrate. He 
further abolished the private workhouses all through It- 
aly.f 

It was during the reign of this prince that Heaven poured 
out its last vial of vengeance on the obstinate and fanatic 
nation of the Jews. Toward the end of the reign of Trajan, 
(115,) this people had risen in rebellion in Egypt and Gy- 
rene, and committed great massacres and other atrocities ; 
and the following year they rose in a similar manner in the 
isle of Cyprus and in Mesopotamia. They were, however, 
reduced by Marcius Turbo and Lusius Quietus ; and they 
remained at rest till the year 134, when, on the occasion of 
Hadrian's placing a Roman colony at Jerusalem, which he 
named from himself ^Elia Capitolina, and building a temple 
to Jupiter on the site of that of Jehovah,, their fanatic spirit 

* A little before his death, he made the following pretty lines, ad- 
dressed to his soul. (The measure is dimeter iambic acatalectic.) 

Animula vagula, blandula, 

Hospes, comesque corporis, 

Quae nunc abibis in loca 

Pallidula, rigida, nudula 

Nee, ut soles, dabis joca ? 
t The Moles Hadriani, the present castle of St. Ahgelo. 
t See above, p. 32. The evil which Augustus tried to remedy still 
continued. 



180 ANTONINUS PIUS.. [a. D. 138-161. 

took fire, and they flew to arms under a leader named Bar- 
cokebas, {Son of the Star,) who gave himself out for the 
Messiah. Hadrian sent the ablest of his generals, Julius 
Severus, who commanded in Britain, to conduct the war, 
which lasted about two years. The number of the Jews 
slain in battle is said to have been 580,000, beside an infinite 
number who perished by famine and disease ; and the Joss on 
the part of the Romans was not inconsiderable. The pris- 
oners were sold for slaves, and the Jews were forbidden 
henceforth, under pain of death, to come evea within sight 
of Jerusalem. 



T. Aurelius Antoninus Pius, 
A. u. 891—914. A. D. 138—161. 

Titus Aurelius Antoninus was of a family originally of 
Nismes {Nemausia) in Gaul, but he was born near Lanu- 
vium in Latium. He bore the consulate and other offices 
of state, and he was so generally beloved, that the legacies 
which, in the usual Roman manner, he received from his 
friends, made him extremely rich. Though he took a share 
in public affairs, and had long been of Hadrian's council, 
his delight was in a country life, and his favorite abode was 
his villa of Lorii, about twelve miles from Rome, on the Au- 
relian road, the place where he had passed his boyhood. 

Antoninus was in the fifty-first year of his age when he 
was adopted by Hadrian. The senate, on his accession, de- 
creed him all the usual titles and honors, adding to them 
that which gave him most pleasure, the title of Pius or 'Du- 
tiful,' on account of his anxiety to guard from reproach the 
memory of his adoptive father. 

For a space of twenty-three years, the Roman world was 
ruled by this excellent prince, in whom men recognized all 
the virtues that imagination had ascribed to the mythic 
Numa. The aspirations of Plato for the happiness of man- 
kind in the union of the monarch and the philosopher, at 
length received their accomplishment ; for Antoninus, though 
not in speculation, was in practice a philosopher of the best 
and most rational school. All the virtues that adorn public 
or private life were united in him. As a ruler, he was just, 
but clement, generous, and affable ; as a private man, he was 
kind, social, liberal, and good-tempered. He lived with his 



A. D. 161.J M. AURELIUS. 181 

friends on a footing of equality ; lie encouraged philosophy 
and rhetoric in all parts of the empire, by giving honors and 
salaries to their professors ; he was attentive in the discharge 
of all the ceremonies and duties belonging to the religion of 
the state, but he would not suffer those who differed from it 
to be persecuted. The public events of this tranquil reign 
were few and unimportant. Bad men, however, are always 
to be found, and we need not therefore be surprised to hear 
that conspiracies were formed even against Antoninus ; but 
the authors of them were punished by the senate, or died by 
their own hands. The only sounds of war were on the dis- 
tant frontiers, where the Moors and the German and Sarma- 
tian tribes were checked by the imperial generals. In Brit- 
ain, Antoninus caused a wall to be run from the Firth of 
Clyde to that of Forth, farther north than that of Hadrian. 
Some tumults in Greece and Judeea were suppressed. The 
princes of the East, and those round the Euxine, obeyed the 
mandates of the Roman emperor, or submitted their differ- 
ences to his decision. 

Antoninus had attained the seventy-fifth year of his age, 
and the twenty-third of his reign, when, at his palace of 
Lorii, (161,) after supping rather heartily on some Alpine 
cheese, he was seized with a vomiting in the night, which 
was succeeded next day by a fever. On the third day, he 
commended the empire and his daughter to his adopted son, 
M. Aurelius, and caused the golden image of Fortune, which 
was usually kept in the imperial chamber, to be transferred 
to that prince's apartments. To the tribune of the guards, 
when he came for the word, he gave Equanimity ; and then, 
turning round as if to sleep, quietly breathed his last. He 
was buried in the tomb of Hadrian, and divine honors were 
decreed to him by the senate. 



M. JEiUus Aurelius Antoninus. 
A. V. 914—933. A. D. 161—180. 

The first name of the adopted son, son-in-law, and suc- 
cessor, of Antoninus had been Catilius Severus, that of his 
maternal grandfather ; but, on the death of his father, he was 
adopted by his paternal grandfather, and called after him, 
Annius Verus : when adopted by Antoninus, he took the 
name of M. iElius Aurelius Verus ; and when he became 

CONTIN. 16 



182 M. AURELIUS. [a. d. 161-162. 

emperor, he dropped the Verus, and took in its place An- 
toninus. 

The character of this prince was grave, serious, and vir- 
tuous, even from his childhood ; and Hadrian, who had a 
great affection for him, used^ instead of Veru^ to call him 
Verissimus. At the age of twelve, he assumed the philoso- 
pher's habity and began to practise the austerity of the philo- 
sophic life. He had the best instructors of every kind ; he 
became well skilled in all active and martial exercises, and 
acquired a knowledge of painting ; but the study of the Stoic 
philosophy, to which he was devoted, chiefly occupied his 
attention. He was in his eighteenth year when he was 
adopted by Antoninus. This prince gave him in marriage 
his daughter Faustina, and made him in effect his colleague 
in the empire. Such was the filial duty of Marcus, that, 
from the day of his adoption to that of the death of Pius, he 
lay but two nights out of the palace, and those at different 
times. 

On the death of Pius, the senate offered the empire to M. 
Aurelius alone ; but, mindful of the wishes of Hadrian, he 
associated with him in his dignity his adoptive brother, L. 
Commodus, to whom he gave his own name of Verus, and 
betrothed to him his daughter Lucilla. The Roman world 
had thus for the first time two emperors ; but in effect there 
was only one, for Verus, who was of an open, good-natured 
temper, and a lover of pleasure rather than of study and 
business, deferred in all things to his wiser brother, and 
acted only as his lieutenant. 

The new emperors had soon to prepare for the defence of 
their dominions. The barbarians of Caledonia and of north- 
ern Germany renewed their assaults on the adjoining prov- 
inces, and Vologeses, the Parthian king, entered Armenia 
and cut to pieces a Roman army, led by the governor of Cap- 
padocia to its defence. The Parthian monarch then poured 
a large army into Syria, and defeated the governor of that 
province. This war appeared of such importance, that it 
was deemed expedient that one of the emperors should con- 
duct it in person. Aurelius, wishing to remove Verus from 
the seductions of Rome, and give him an opportunity of ac- 
quiring military fame, committed to him the Parthian war; 
and that prince accordingly set out for the East, (162.) But, 
instead of putting himself at the head of his troops, the vo- 
luptuous emperor, under the pretext of attending to the com- 
missariat of the army, remained at Antioch, visiting Daphne 



A. D. 166.] PARTHIAN WAR. 183 

in the summer and Laodicea in the winter, and thinking 
only of pleasure. The war was meantime conducted by his 
generals, who, especially Avidius Cassius, proved themselves 
to be able men. It lasted four years ; success was generally 
on the side of the Romans, and Cassius crossed the Tigris, 
took Ctesiphon, and destroyed the royal palace. The war 
appears to have been concluded by a treaty, by which the 
Parthian monarch resigned all claim to the country west of 
the Tigris, The two emperors then celebrated a joint tri- 
umph, (166,) and assumed the title of Parthic. 

While Verus was absent in the East, the government of 
Aurelius at Rome had emulated that of Pius, and been in all 
things directed to the promotion of the happiness of the peo- 
ple. But in the train of Verus came a pestilence, which ex- 
ceeded in virulence any that had occurred for many years, 
spread to all parts of the empire, and carried off an immense 
number of people. A famine at Rome accompanied it ; and, 
to add to the calamities of the empire, a war with the Mar- 
comans broke out, which was to occupy Aurelius all the rest 
of his reiorn. 

We always find the German race acting in confederations, 
and this is perhaps one of the principal reasons why the 
Romans never could make any permanent impression on 
them. The confederation was usually named from the prin- 
cipal people engaged in it, and of the tribes on the left bank 
of the Danube, the Marcomans seem now to have been the 
most powerful. The removal of the legions, on account of 
the Parthian war, held out to them an opportunity of rav- 
aging the Roman province. It is also said that the pressure 
of some of the tribes farther north, who had abandoned or 
been driven from their own lands, and came seeking new 
ones, urged them to war. A union was therefore formed of 
all the German and Sarmatian nations contiguous to the 
Danube, for the invasion of the Roman provinces ; but, while 
the Parthian war lasted, the Romans averted it by negotia- 
tion. When, however, the barbarians saw the empire deso- 
lated by the plague, they would no longer be restrained, and 
they passed the river in all parts, and poured over and rav- 
aged the provinces, taking cities and towns, and dragging 
thousands into captivity.* The intelligence caused great 
consternation at Rome, and Aurelius assured the senate that 

* According to Pausanias (x.) they advanced as far as Elatea in 
Greece. 



184 M. AURELIUS. [a. d. 167-169. 

the danger was of such magnitude, as to require the presence 
of both the emperors ; not that he set any value on the mili- 
tary talents of Verus, but he did not consider it safe to leave 
him behind at Rome. The emperors therefore assumed the 
military habit, and advanced to Aquileia, (167.) They found 
that the tidings of their approach had caused the barbarians 
to repass the Danube, and deputies soon appeared suing for 
peace. Verus, w^ho longed to return to the delights of Rome, 
was for accepting their excuses ; but Marcus, who judged 
that they only feigned a desire of peace through fear of his 
large army, resolved to advance farther, and let them see his 
power. He therefore passed the Alps, and advanced into the 
northern provinces, and, having made all the requisite dispo- 
sitions for the security of Illyricum and Italy, he set out on 
his return to Rome, permitting Verus to precede his arrival. 
The war, however, was speedily renewed, and, toward the 
close of the year 169, the emperors proceeded again to Aqui- 
leia, in order to take the field in the spring. But the plague 
was so violent in that town, that they could not venture to 
remain there, and, though it was mid-winter, they left it in 
order to return to Rome. On their way, as they were riding 
in the same carriage, near to Altino, Verus was struck with 
a fiit of apoplexy ; and, after remaining speechless for three 
days, he expired. His body was conveyed to Rome, and 
deposited in the tomb of Hadrian, and he was deified in the 
usual manner. 

There were not wanting those who were malignant enough 
to charge Marcus with the guilt of having caused the death 
of Verus, by poison, or by excessive blood-letting ; but his 
character alone suffices for the refutation of such calumnies. 
The death of Verus was, however, a great relief to him, for, 
excepting cruelty, this prince had all the vices of Caius and 
Nero, being devoted to gaming, chariot-racing, gladiators, 
buffoons, and every species of luxury and dissipation ; and 
Marcus, though aware of and bitterly lamenting his defects, 
thought it his duty to conceal or excuse the failings of a 
brother. 

Marcus now, unimpeded by his colleague, devoted his 
whole energies to the improvement and defence of the em- 
pire. As the Marcomans had defeated and slain the pras- 
torian prefect Vindex, and were growing every day more 
formidable, and the legions had been dreadfully thinned by 
the plague, he took all kinds of men into pay. He enrolled 



A.D. 170-174.] MARCOMANIC WAR. 185 

slaves, as had been done in the Punic war,* gladiators, the 
bandits of Dalmatia, and Dardania, and the Diocmitse, or those 
employed in pursuit of them. He also commenced the per- 
nicious practice of taking bodies of the Germans into Roman 
pay. In order to raise funds for the war without distressing 
the provincials, he caused an auction to be held, for the space 
of two months, in Trajan's Forum, at which all the splendid 
furniture, plate, and jewels belonging to the palace, even his 
own and his wife's silken and golden garments, were sold. 
Having thus obtained an abundant supply of money, he set 
out for the seat of war, (170.) 

The war lasted several years, during which the emperor 
did not return to Italy. His residence was, for three years, 
at Carnuntum, in Pannonia, on the Danube. He cleared 
that province of the barbarians, and he gave the Marcomans 
a notable defeat, as they were effecting the passage of the 
river. In the year 174, he carried the war beyond the Dan- 
ube, into the country of the Quadans. It was the middle of 
summer, the heat was excessive, and the enemy contrived to 
enclose the Roman army in a situation totally destitute of 
water, and, securing all the outlets, they awaited the sure 
effects of heat and thirst. The sufferings of the Romans 
were for some time extreme ; but at length the clouds were 
seen to collect, and soon the rain began to descend in tor- 
rents. The Cluadans, seeing their hopes thus frustrated, 
fell on the Romans while engaged in quenching their thirst, 
and would, it is said, have defeated them, had not a tempest 
of hail and lightning come on, aided by which the Romans 
gained a victory. 

This event, which was, no doubt, a natural one, was held 
to be miraculous, and both pagans and Christians claimed 
the honor of it. The former ascribed it to an Egyptian ma- 
gician named Arnesiphis, who was with Aurelius, and by 
his arts caused the aereal Hermes and other demons to send 
the rain. The latter affirmed that it was sent in answer to 
the prayers of one of the legions, named the Melitenensian, 
or the Thundering, and which was composed of Christians ; 
and they add that the emperor, in his letter to the senate, 
acknowledged this to be the fact, and caused the persecution 
of the Christians to cease.t 

* The Volones, (Hist, of Rome, 219 ;) they were now called Volun- 
tarily and the gladiators, Obsequentes. 

t Euseb. Hist. Ec. v. 5 ; Tert. Ap. 5 ; Xiphil. Ixxi. 9. Apollinaris 
(ap. Euseb.) says that the legion received the title of Thundering 
16* X 



186 M. AURELIUS. [a. D. 175. 

The confederates had suffered so much by the war, that 
they now were anxious for peace ; and most of them sent 
deputies to the emperor. The Quadans, the Marcoinans, 
and the Sarmatian Jazygans, obtained peace on the terms 
of giving up all the deserters and prisoners, and of the two 
former not dwelling within less than five miles of the Dan- 
ube; the Jazygans of double that distance. Other smaller 
nations were taken into alliance with the Romans, and lands 
were given them in the adjacent provinces, and even in Italy. 

This accommodation with the barbarians was hastened by 
the intelligence of a revolt in Syria. Avidius Cassius, who 
had, in effect, conducted the Parthian war, and had after- 
wards commanded on the Danube, had received from Mar- 
cus the government of that province, in order that he might 
restore the discipline of the army. Cassius, who was a man 
of the greatest rigor, and was even barbarous in his punish- 
ments, had still the art of attaching the soldiery ; and the 
Syrian army was soon in a most effective state of discipline, 
and devoted to its leader : the subjects and the neighboring 
princes were also inclined to Cassius, and, feeling, or affect- 
ing to feel, a contempt for the mild philosophy and the 
extreme lenity and clemency of Marcus, he at length (175) 
resolved to declare himself emperor. The whole of Asia 
south of Mount Taurus, and Egypt, submitted, and the 
troops of Bithynia were on the point of declaring for him. 
The emperor was informed of the revolt by Marcius Ve- 
rus, the governor of Cappadocia. He concealed the matter 
at first; but, finding that it had come to the ears of the 
soldiers, he called them together, and addressed them in 
a speech worthy of himself He then wrote to the same 
effect to the senate, and that body declared Cassius a pub- 
lic enemy. Marcus was preparing to march into the East 
to contend for his empire, when the head of his rival was 
brought to him ; for Cassius, as he was one day walking 
or riding, was fallen on and slain by two of his own officers, 
after a dream of empire of three months. The army returned 
to its obedience, and put to death the eldest son of Cassius 
and his praetorian prefect, and no more blood was shed. 
Cassius's papers were burnt, either by the emperor or by 
Verus ; his family was treated with favor ; the cities and 
towns which had declared for him were forgiven. 

o 

(Fulminea) on this occasion ; but Tillemont observes that an inscrip- 
tion proves it to have belonged to the twelfth legion in the time of 
Trajan, 



A.D. 176-178.] M. AURELIUS. 187 

In order to regulate the affairs of the East, Marcus pro- 
ceeded thither in person. He visited Syria and Egypt, and 
stopping, on his return, at Athens, (176,) he was there in- 
itiated in the mysteries. On the 23d of December, he en- 
tered Rome in triumph, with his son Commodus. The 
triumph was for the victories over the Germans. 

While Marcus was in Asia, the empress Faustina, who 
accompanied him, died suddenly in a little town at the foot 
of Mount Taurus. Her husband lamented her, even with 
tears; and, at his request, the senate deified her, and erected 
an altar to her, at which all young maidens, when they mar- 
ried, were to sacrifice with their bridegrooms. Yet, if his- 
tory may be credited, Faustina was so abandoned to lust, 
that she used to select the most vigorous rowers from the 
fleet, and gladiators from the arena, to share her embraces; 
and the general opinion was, that a gladiator, and not Mar- 
cus, was the father of Commodus. Her infamy, it is said, 
was not unknown to her husband, who, when urged to di- 
vorce her if he would not put her to death, replied, " If I put 
away my wife, I must restore her dower," that is, the empire ; 
a reply so unworthy of Marcus, that we cannot regard it as 
true.* 

The war had been rekindled on the banks of the Danube ; 
the Marcomans, Q,uadans, and their allies, were again in 
arms, and the presence of the emperor was required. He 
left Rome in the autumn of 178, taking with him his son. 
He is said to have gained a considerable victory the follow- 
ing year, and the subjugation of the barbarians was regarded 
as certain; but, in the spring of 180, he was attacked by a 
contagious malady, which carried him off on the seventh day, 
after a reign of nineteen years, and when he had nearly 
attained the fifty-ninth year of his age. 

The emperor M. Aurelius has been compared to the Eng- 
lish king Alfred. Like him, he united the active and con- 
templative life, led armies and cultivated literature. But 
Alfred had far greater difficulties to contend with, and his 
studies were more directed to objects suitable to a sovereign. 
The British monarch, too, (favored in this, perhaps, by na- 
ture or fortune,) was more happy in his family than the 
Roman; for, while Alfred left children worthy to occupy 

* It is more probable that he did not know her infamy ; for in the 
first book of his Meditations, written only a short time before she died, 
he praises her obedience, affection, and simplicity of manners. 



188 REFLECTIONS. 

his place, and was blessed in all his domestic relations, the 
vices of his wife, his son, and his adoptive brother, cast a 
shade over the virtues of Aurelius. His blindness to these 
vices, if he really was not aware of them, derogates from his 
judgment and wisdom ; while, if we concede him penetration 
of character, we must condemn the weakness which could, 
for example, commit the happiness of the world to a Com- 
modus. A certain imbecility of character was in effect the 
chief blemish of Aurelius. It would almost seem as if too 
early a study of speculative philosophy were detrimental to 
a man who is called on to take an active part in the affairs 
of life, and to direct the destinies of an empire. 

" If a man," says Gibbon, '' were called to fix a period in 
the history of the world during which the condition of the 
human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, with- 
out hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of 
Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent 
of the Roman empire was governed by absolute power, un- 
der the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were 
restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four successive 
emperors, whose characters and authority commanded in- 
voluntary respect. The forms of the civil administration 
were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the 
Antonines, who delighted in the image of liberty, and were 
pleased with considering themselves as the accountable min- 
isters of the laws. Such princes deserved the honor of re- 
storing the republic, had the Romans of their days been 
capable of enjoying a rational freedom." 

In this passage, characterized by the author's usual preju- 
dices, there is certainly much that is true, but mingled with 
exaggeration and error. The character and reign of Ha- 
drian, for example, are surely not entitled to such lofty terms 
of praise. The brightest spot in the picture is the period 
of the dominion of Pius; but our information respecting that 
reign is so imperfect, that we have not the means of forming 
a correct judgment. As happiness is seated so entirely in 
the mind, and depends so much on natural character, com- 
parisons of the amount of it enjoyed in different periods, and 
by different classes of persons, are quite fallacious; and we 
have no doubt that the guards and the populace at Rome 
thought themselves happier under a Nero and a Domitian 
than a Hadrian and an Aurelius. We still, however, agree 
generally in the conclusions of the historian. 



A.D. 180.] COMMODUS. 189 

CHAPTER m * 

COMMODUS. PERTINAX. JULIAN. SEVERUS. 

A. u. 933—964. A. D. 180—211. 

COMMODUS. CONSPIRACY AGAINST HIM. PERENNIS. 

CLEANDER. MATERNUS AND THE DESERTERS. DEATH 

OF CLEANDER. VICES OF COMMODUS. HIS DEATH. 

ELEVATION AND MURDER OF PERTINAX. EMPIRE PUT TO 

AUCTION. BOUGHT BY DIDIUS JULIANUS. PESCENNIUS 

NIGER. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. CLODIUS ALBINUS. 

MARCH OF SEVERUS. DEATH OF JULIAN. PRiETORIANS 

DISBANDED. SEVERUS AT ROME. WAR WITH NIGER. 

WITH ALBINUS. PARTHIAN WAR. FAMILY OF SEVERUS. 

PLAUTIANUS. SEVERUS IN BRITAIN. HIS DEATH. —^ 

MAXIMS OF GOVERNMENT. 

L. jEUus Aurelius Commodus. 

A. u. 933—945. A. D. 180—192. 

L. vElius Aurelius Commodus, the son and successor of 
M. Aurelius, was in the nineteenth year of his age when the 
death of his excellent father left him master of the Roman 
world. He was the first of the Roman emperors who was what 
was termed Porphyrogenitus^ i. e. born to a reigning emperor. 
Not a murmur was raised against his succession ; a liberal 
donative gratified the soldiers, and the war was, during the 
summer, prosecuted with vigor against the barbarians; but 
Commodus longed for the pleasures of Rome, and he will- 
ingly listened to their solicitations for peace. Treaties hon- 
orable to Rome were therefore concluded. The terms given 
to the Quadans and Marcomans were nearly the same as 
those accorded by Marcus ; but they were bound not to make 
war on the Jazygans, the Burrans, or the Vandals. They 
were each to furnish a certain number of men for the Ro- 
man armies. The terms imposed on the rest were not 
dissimilar. The emperor then returned to Rome and tri- 
umphed, (Oct. 22.) 

* Authorities : Dion, Herodian, the Augustan History, and the Epi- 
tometors. 



190 coMMODus. [a.d. 180-183. 

Commodus is one among the many instances which we may 
find of the feebleness of education in the attempt to control 
the tendencies of nature.* It was in vain that Marcus had, 
in his own person, given his son an example of all the virtues, 
and had surrounded him with the ablest instructors. Their 
lessons were unheeded, and their pupil was distinguished 
only by skill in the exercises of the gladiators' school, and 
for the unerring aim with which he flung the javelin or shot 
the arrow, under the teaching of Moors and Parthians. He 
is also noted for being the first of the emperors who was 
totally devoid of taste for literature. 

The foreign transactions of this reign are of little impor- 
tance ; the German and British frontiers merely gave their 
usual occupation to the legions. At Rome, for the space of 
about three years, all was tranquillity also; for Commodus, 
whose natural character, as we are assured, was weak and 
timid, rather than wicked, allowed himself to be directed by 
the able and upright men to whom his father had recom- 
mended him. His hours were devoted to luxury and indul- 
gence, till, at length, (183,) an event occurred which revealed 
the latent cruelty of his nature. 

After the death of L. Verus, Marcus had given his daugh- 
ter Lucilla in marriage to Pompeianus, a most respectable 
senator, and, after the death of her mother, he allowed her 
all the honors of an empress, which her brother also con- 
tinued to her. But, on the marriage of Commodus with a 
lady named Crispina, Lucilla was obliged to yield prece- 
dence to the reigning empress. Her haughty spirit deemed 
this an indignity, and she resolved on revenge. Fearing to 
intrust her design to her noble-minded husband, she first 
communicated it to Quadratus, a wealthy young nobleman, 
with whom she carried on an adulterous intercourse ; she 
also engaged in the plot Claudius Pompeianus, another of 
her paramours, who was betrothed to her daughter ; some 
senators also were aware of it. As Commodus was entering 
the amphitheatre, through a dusky passage, Pompeianus, 
who was lying in wait, drew his sword, and cried, *' The 
senate sends thee this." But the words prevented the exe- 
cution of his design, and he was seized by the guards. He, 
Cluadratus, and some others, were executed ; Lucilla was, 
for the present, confined in the isle of Caprese, but she was, 

* " The power of instruction," observes Gibbon, " is seldom of 
much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost 
superfluous." 



A. D. 



186.] CONSPIRACY. 191 



ere long, put to death ; and a similar fate soon befell her 
rival, Crispina, on account of adultery. In her place, Com- 
modus took a freedwoman, named Marcia, who had been 
the concubine of Quadratus, and to whom he gave all the 
honors of an empress, except that of having fire borne be- 
fore her. 

The unwise exclamation of Pompeianus sank deep in the 
mind of Commodus : he learned to regard the senate as his 
deadly enemies, and many of its most illustrious members 
w^ere put to death, on various pretexts. His only reliance 
was now on the guards ; and the praetorian prefects soon be- 
cam.e as important as in former times. The prefects now 
were Tarruntius Paternus and Perennis ; but the arts of the 
latter caused the former to be removed and put to death, and 
the whole power of the state fell into his hands ; for the timid 
Commodus no longer ventured to appear in public, and all 
business was transacted by Perennis. The prefect removed 
all he dreaded, by false accusations ; and he amassed wealth 
by the confiscation of the properties of the nobility. His 
son was in command of the Illyrian legions, and he now 
aspired to the empire. But he had offended the army of 
Britain, and they deputed (186) fifteen hundred of their 
number to accuse him to Commodus of designs on the em- 
pire. They were supported by the secret influence of the 
freedman Oleander, and Perennis was given up to their 
vengeance. Himself, his wife, his sister, and two of his 
children, were massacred ; his eldest son was recalled, and 
murdered, on the way to Rome. 

The character of Perennis is doubtful, but that of Clean- 
der, who succeeded to his power, was one of pure evil. 
Cleander, a Phrygian by birth, had been brought to Rome 
as a slave, and sold in the public market. He was pur- 
chased for the palace, and placed about the person of Com- 
modus, with whom he speedily ingratiated himself; and 
when the prince became emperor, he made Cleander his 
chamberlain. The power of the freedman, when Perennis 
was removed, became absolute ; avarice, the passion of a 
vulgar mind, was his guiding principle. All the honors and 
all the posts of the empire were put to sale ; pardons for 
any crime were to be had for money ; and, in the short 
space of three years, the wealth of Cleander exceeded that 
of the Pallas and Narcissus of the early days of the empire. 
A conspiracy of an extraordinary nature occurred not long 
after the death of Perennis. A great number of men who 



192 coMMODus. [a.d, 187-189. 

had deserted from the armies, put themselves under the com- 
mand of a common soldier, named Maternus : they were 
joined by slaves, whom they freed from their bonds; and 
they ravaged for some time with impunity the provinces of 
Gaul and Spain. At length, (187,) when Maternus found 
the governors preparing to act with vigor against him, he 
resolved to make a desperate effort, and be emperor, or 
perish. He directed his followers to disperse, and repair 
secretly to Rome, where he proposed that they should as- 
sume the dress of the guards, and fall on the emperor during 
the license of the festival of the Megalesia.* All succeeded 
to his wishes : they rendezvoused in Rome ; but some of 
them, out of envy, betrayed the secret, and Maternus and 
some others were taken and executed. 

The power of Oleander was now at its height ; by gifts to 
Commodus and his mistresses, he maintained his influence at 
court, and, by the erection of baths and other public edi- 
fices, he sought to ingratiate himself with the people. He 
had also the command of the guards, for whom he had, for 
some time, caused praetorian prefects to be made and un- 
made, at his will. He at length divided the office between 
himself and two others ; but he did not assume the title.f 
As an instance of the way in which he disposed of offices, 
we find in one year (189) no less than five-and-twenty 
consuls. 

What the ultimate views of Oleander may have been is 
unknown ; for he shared the usual fate of aspiring freedmen. 
Rome was visited at this time by a direful pestilence, and 
the emperor, on account of it, resided out -of the city. The 
pestilence was, as usual, attended by famine ; and this visita- 
tion of Heaven was by the people laid to the charge of the odi- 
ous favorite. As they were one day (189) viewing the horse- 
races in the circus, a party of children entered, headed by a 
fierce-looking girl, and began to exclaim against Oleander. 
The people joined in the cries, and then, rising, rushed to 
where Oommodus was residing in the suburbs, demanding 
the death of Oleander. But the favorite instantly ordered the 
prjEtorian cavalry to charge them, and they were driven back 
to the city, with the loss of many lives. When, however, 
the cavalry entered the streets, they were assailed by mis- 

* For a description of this festival, see Ovid, Fasti, iv. 179, seq. 
t He styled himself h pugione, ministers being thus named from 
their offices, ex gr. a rationibus, ah epistolis. 



A. D. 192.] CRUELTY OF COMMODUS. 



193 



siles from the roofs of the houses ; and the people, being 
joined by the urban cohorts, rallied, and drove them back to 
the palace, where Commodus still lay in total ignorance of 
all that had occurred; for fear of Cleander had kept all 
silent. But now Marcia, or, as others said, the emperor's 
sister Fadilla,* seeing the danger so imminent, rushed into 
his presence, and informed him of the truth. Without a 
moment's hesitation, he ordered Cleander and his son to be 
put to death. The people placed the head of Cleander on a 
pole, and dragged his body through the streets ; and, when 
they had massacred some of his creatures, the tumult ceased. 

The cruelty of Commodus displayed itself more and more 
every day, and several men of rank became its victims. At 
the same time, his lust was unbounded; three hundred 
beautiful women, and as many boys, of all ages and coun- 
tries, filled his seraglio, and he abstained from no kind of 
infamy. He delighted also to exhibit proofs of his skill as 
a marksman, and he assumed the title and attributes of the 
hero Hercules. For some time, like Nero, he confined his 
displays to the interior of his residences ; but, at length, the 
senate and people were permitted to witness his skill in the 
amphitheatre. A gallery ran round it for the safety and 
convenience of the emperor, from which he discharged his 
darts and arrows, with unerring aim, at the larger and fiercer 
animals, while he ventured into the arena to destroy the 
deer and other timid creatures. A hundred lions were at 
once let loose, and each fell by a single wound ; an irritated 
panther had just seized a man — a dart was flung by the em-? 
peror, and the beast fell dead, while the man remained un- 
injured. With crescent-headed arrows he cut off the heads 
of ostriches, as they ran at full speed. 

But his greatest delight was to combat as a gladiator. He 
appeared in the character of a Secutor : he caused to be re- 
corded 735 victories which he had gained, and he received 
each time an immense stipend out of the gladiatorial fund. 
Instead of Hercules, he now styled himself Paulus, after 
a celebrated Secutor, and caused it to be inscribed on his 
statues. He also took up his abode in the residence of the 
gladiators. 

At length, the tyrant met the fate he merited. It was his 
design to put to death the two consuls elect for the year 193, 

* Dion says Marcia, Herodian Fadiila. Tillemont and Gibbon unite 
the two. 

CONTIN. 17 Y 



194 PERTINAX. [a. D. 193. 

and, on new year's day, to proceed from the gladiators' school, 
in his gladiatorial habit, and enter on the consulate. On 
the preceding day, he communicated his design to Marcia, 
who tried in vain to dissuade him from it. Q,. ^lius La^tus, 
the proetorian prefect, and the chamberlain, Eclectus, also 
reasoned with him, but to as little purpose. He testified much 
wrath, and uttered some menaces. Knowing that the threats 
of the tyrant were the sure precursors of death, they saw 
their only hopes of safety lay in anticipation; they took their 
resolution on the moment ; * and when Commodus came from 
the bath, Marcia, as was her usual practice, handed him a 
bowl, (in which she had now infused a strong poison,) to 
quench his thirst. 

He drank the liquor off, and then laid himself down ta 
sleep. The attendants were all sent away. The conspira- 
tors were expecting the effect of the poison, when the empe- 
ror began to vomit profusely. Fearing now that the poison 
would not take effect, they brought in a vigorous wrestler, 
named Narcissus ; and, induced by the promise of a large 
reward, he laid hold on and strangled the emperor. 



P. Helvius Pertinax. 
A. u. 946. A. D. 193. 



The conspirators had, it is probable, already fixed on the 
person who should succeed to the empire ; and their choice 
was one calculated to do them credit. It was P. Helvius 
Pertinax, the prefect of the city, a man now advanced in 
years, who had with an unblemished character, though born 
in an humble rank, passed through all the civil and military 
gradations of the state. Pertinax was the son of a freed- 
man who was engaged in the manufacture of charcoal, at 
Alba Pompeia, in the Apennines. He commenced life as 
a man of letters; but, finding the literary profession unprofit- 
able, he entered the army as a centurion, and his career of 
advancement was rapid. 

It was yet night when Laetus and Eclectus proceeded with 

* Herodian tells us of a list of those destined to be put to death, 
taken by a child, and read by Marcia, as in the case of Domitian. But 
he is a very inaccurate writer ; and Dion, who was a senator, and in 
Rome at the time, could hardly have been ignorant of the circum- 
stance, if it were true. 



A. D. 193.] PERTiNAX. 195 

some soldiers to the house of Pertinax. When informed of 
their arrival, he ordered them to be brought to his chamber, 
and then, without rising, told them that he had long expected 
every night to be his last, and bade them execute their office; 
for he was certain that Commodus had sent them to put him 
to death. But they informed him that the tyrant himself 
was no more, and that they were come to offer him the em- 
pire. He hesitated to give credit to them ; but, having sent 
one on whom he could depend, and ascertained that Com- 
modus was dead, he consented to accept the proffered dig- 
nity. Though it was not yet day, they all repaired to the 
praetorian camp ; and Lajtus, having assembled the soldiers, 
told them that Commodus was suddenly dead of apoplexy, 
and that he had brought them his successor, a man whose 
merits were known to them all. Pertinax then addressed 
them, promising a large donative. By this time, the people 
(for Laitus had caused the news of Commodus's death to be 
spread through the city) had gathered round the camp, and, 
urged by their shouts and importunity, the soldiers swore 
fidelity to the emperor, though they feared that he was a 
man who would renew the strictness of discipline. 

Before dawn, the senate was summoned to the temple of 
Concord, whither Pertinax had proceeded from the camp. 
He told them what had occurred, and, noticing his age and 
his humble extraction, pointed out divers senators as more 
worthy of the empire than himself. But they would not 
listen to his excuses, and they decreed him all the imperial 
titles. Then, giving a loose to their rage against the fallen 
tyrant, they termed him parricide, gladiator, the enemy of 
the gods and of his country, and decreed that his statues 
should be cast down, his titles be erased, and his body 
dragged with the hook through the streets. But Pertinax 
respected too nmch the memory of Marcus to suffer the re- 
mains of his son to be thus treated ; and they were, by his 
order, placed in the tomb of Hadrian. 

Pertinax was cheerfully acknowledged by all the armies. 
Like Vespasian, he was simple and modest in his dress and 
mode of life, and he lived on terms of intimacy with the 
respectable members of the senate. He resigned his private 
property to his wife and son, but would not suffer the senate 
to bestow on them any titles. He regulated the finances 
with the greatest care, remitting oppressive taxes, and can- 
celling unjust claims. He sold by auction all the late 
tyrant's instruments of luxury, and obliged his favorites to 



196 PERTINAX. [a. d. 193. 

disgorge a portion of their plunder. lie granted the waste 
lands in Italy and elsewhere for a term of years rent-free to 
those who would undertake to improve them. 

The reforming hand of the emperor was extended to all 
departments of the state ; and men looked for a return of 
the age of the Antonines. But the soldiers dreaded the 
restoration of the ancient discipline; and LfEtus, who found 
that he did not enjoy the power he had expected, secretly 
fomented their discontent. So early as the 3d of January, 
they had seized a senator named Triarius Maternus, intend- 
ing to make him emperor ; but he escaped from them, and fled 
to Pertinax for protection. Some time after, while the em- 
peror was on the sea-coast attending to the supply of corn, 
they prepared to raise Sosius Falco, then consul, to the 
empire ; but Pertinax came suddenly to Rome, and, having 
complained of Falco to the senate, they were about to pro- 
claim him a public enemy, when the emperor cried that no 
senator should suffer death while he reigned ; and Falco was 
thus suffered to escape punishment. 

Some expressions which Pertinax used on this occasion 
irritated the soldiers ; and Ln3tus, to exasperate them still 
more, put several of them to death, as if by his orders. Ac- 
cordingly, on the 28th of March, a general mutiny broke out 
in the camp, and two or three hundred of the most desper- 
ate proceeded with drawn swords to the palace. No one 
Opposed their entrance. Pertinax, when informed of their 
approach, advanced to meet them. He addressed them, 
reminding them of his own innocence and of the obligation 
of their oath. They were silent for a few moments ; at 
length a Tungrian soldier struck him with his sword, crying, 
" The soldiers send thee this." They all then fell on him, 
and, cutting off his head, set it on a lance, and carried it to 
the camp. Eclectus, f\\ithful to the last, perished with the 
emperor; Laetus had fled in disguise at the approach of the 
mutineers. The reign of the virtuous Pertinax had lasted 
only eighty-six days; he was in the sixty-seventh year of 
his age. 



M. Didius Severus Julianus. 
A. u. 946. A. D. 193. 



The mutineers, on their return to the camp, found there 
Sulpicianus, the prefect of the city, the late emperor's father- 



A. D. 193.] JULIANUS. 197 

in-law, who had been sent thither to try to appease the mu- 
tiny. The bloody proof which they bore of the empire's 
being vacant, excited, while it should have extinguished, his 
ambition, and he forthwith began to treat for the dangerous 
prize. Immediately some of the soldiers ran, and, ascending 
the ramparts, cried out aloud, that the empire was for sale, 
and would be given to the highest bidder. The news reached 
the ears of Didius Julianus, a wealthy and luxurious senator, 
as he sat at table ; and, urged by his wife and daughter, and 
his parasites, he rose and hastened to the camp. The mili- 
tary auctioneers stood on the wall, one bidder within, the 
other without. Sulpicianus had gone as high as 5000 denars 
a man, when his rival, at one bidding, rose to 6250. This 
spirited offer carried it ; the soldiers also had a secret dread 
that Sulpicianus, if emperor, might avenge the death of his 
son-in-law. The gates were thrown open, and Julian was 
admitted and saluted emperor ; but the soldiers had the gen- 
erosity to stipulate for the safety of his rival. 

From the camp, Julian, escorted by the soldiers, proceed- 
ed to the senate-house. He was there received with affected 
joy, and the usual titles and honors were decreed him; but 
the people stood aloof and in silence, and those who were 
more distant uttered loud curses on him. When Julian 
came to the palace, the first object that met his eyes was the 
corpse of his predecessor; he ordered it to be buried, and 
then, it is said, sat down and passed the greater part of the 
night at a luxurious banquet, and playing at dice. In the 
morning, the senate repaired to him with their feigned com- 
pliments ; but the people still were gloomy ; and, when he 
went down to the senate-house, and was about to offer incense 
to the Janus before the doors, they cried out that he was a 
parricide, and had stolen the empire. He promised them 
money, but they would have none of it; and at length he or- 
dered the soldiers to fall on them, and several were killed and 
wounded. Still they ceased not to revile him and the sol- 
diers, and to call on the other armies, especially that of 
Pescennius Niger, to come to their aid. 

The principal armies were that of Syria, commanded by 
Niger ; that of Pannonia, under Septimius Severus ; and that 
of Britain, under Clodius Albinus, each composed of three 
legions, with its suitable number of auxiliaries. 

C. Pescennius Niger was a native of Aquinum, of a sim- 
ple equestrian family. He entered the army as a centurion, 
and rose, almost solely by merit, till he attained the lucrative 
17* 



198 JOLIANUS. [a. d. 193. 

government of Syria. As an officer, Niger was a rigorous 
maintainer of discipline; as a governor, he was just, but 
mild and indulgent; and he succeeded in gaining alike the 
affections of the soldiers and the subjects. In his private 
life, he was chaste and temperate. 

L. Septimius Severus was born at Leptis in Africa. He 
received a learned education, and devoted himself to the 
bar, and M. Aurelius made him advocate of the fisc. He 
acted as civil governor of several provinces, and had, oc- 
casionally, a military command, but had seen little or no 
actual service. After his consulate, Comraodus, through 
the influence of Lsetus, gave him the command of the Pan- 
nonian legions.* 

D. Clodius Albinus was also an African. He was born 
at Adrumetum, of an honorable family, which derived its 
origin from the Postumii and Ceionii of Rome. He entered 
the army early, and rose through all the gradations of the 
service, being highly esteemed by M. Aurelius. He com- 
manded in Bithynia, at the time of the revolt of Cassius, and 
kept his legions in their duty. Commodus gave him the 
command in Gaul and in Britain, and designed him for his 
successor. Albinus was a strict and even severe officer. 
He was fond of agriculture, on which subject he wrote some 
books. He was charged with private vices, but probably 
without reason. 

When the intelligence of the murder of Pertinax, and the 
sale of the empire to Julian, reached the armies of Syria 
and Pannonia, their generals saw the prospect of empire 
open to them as the avengers of the emperor whom they had 
acknowledged. Each of them assembled his troops, and 
exp&tiated on the atrocity of the deed which had been per- 
petrated at Rome, and each was saluted Augustus by his 
army and the subjects. But while Niger, seeing all the 
provinces and allied princes of Asia unanimous in his favor, 
and therefore indulging in confidence, remained inactive at 
Antioch, Severus resolved to push on for the capital, and 
possess himself of that seat of empire. Having secured 
the adherence of the army of Gaul, he wrote a most friendly 
letter to Albinus, giving him the title of Caesar, and adopting 

* See his Life, in the Augustan History. " The youth of Severus," 
says Gibbon, "had been trained in the implicit obedience of camps, 
and his riper years spent in the despotism of military command." 
We have noticed some similar inaccurate assertions in this writer, who 
is in general so correct. 



A. D. 193.] JULIANUS. 199 

him as his son ; by which he made sure of his neutrality, 
if not of his cooperation. He then advanced by rapid 
marches for Rome. Day and night he appeared in full 
armor, and surrounded by a guard of six hundred chosen 
men, who never laid aside their corselets. Resistance 
was no where offered ; all hailed him as the avenger of 
Per tin ax. 

The wretched Julian was filled with dismay when he 
heard of the approach of the formidable Pannonian army. 
He made the senate declare Severus a public enemy; he 
distributed large sums of money to the praetorians to induce 
them to prepare to defend him ; but these dissolute troops 
were vigorous only for evil, and they could not resume the 
discipline they had lost ; the marines summoned from Mise- 
num were still more inefficient ; and an attempt at training 
elephants for war, in the Oriental manner, only excited de- 
rision. Julian also caused an intrenchment to be run in 
front of the city, and he secured the palace with strong doors 
and bars, as if it could be maintained when all else was lost. 
He put to death Marcia, Laetus, and all concerned in the 
murder of Commodus, probably with a view to the favor of 
the soldiery. 

Severus, meantime, had reached Ravenna, and secured 
the fleet. Julian, having made some fruitless attempts on 
his life, caused the senate to declare him his associate in 
the empire. But Severus now disdained such divided pow- 
er ; he had written to the praetorians, assuring safety to all 
but the actual assassins ofPertinax, and they had accepted 
the conditions. The consul, Silius Messala, assembled the 
senate, and it was resolved to put Julian to death, and give 
the empire to Severus. When those charged with the man- 
date for his death came to Julian, his only words were, 
*' What evil have I done 1 Whom have I slain 1 " He was 
then killed by a common soldier, after a reign of only sixty- 
six days. 



L. Septimius Severus. 
A. u. 946—964. A. D. 193—211. 

Severus was met at Interamna (Terni) in Umbria, sev- 
enty miles from Rome, by deputies from the senate. He 
received them with favor, and still continued to advance. 



SOO SEVERUS AT ROME. [a. D. 193. 

As he drew nigh to Rome, he commanded the execution 
of the murderers of Pertinax ; and he sent orders to the 
remaining praetorians to leave their arms in their camp, and 
come to meet him, dressed as they were wont when attend- 
ing the emperors on solemn occasions. They obeyed ; and 
Severus received them in the plain, before his camp, and 
addressed them from a tribunal, reproaching them with the 
murder of Pertinax, and the sale of the empire to Julian. 
He would spare their lives, he said, but he would leave them 
nothing save their tunics, and death should be the fate of 
any of them who ever came within a hundred miles of the 
capital. While he was speaking, his soldiers had impercep- 
tibly surrounded them ; resistance was vain, and they quiet- 
ly yielded up their swords, and their rich habiliments, and 
mournfully retired. A detachment had, meantime, taken 
possession of their camp, to obviate the effects of their 
despair. 

Severus entered the city at the head of his army. The 
senate and people met him with all the marks of joy and 
festivity. He ascended the Capitol and worshipped ; he then 
visited the other temples, and at length proceeded to the 
palace. In the morning, he met the senate, to whom he 
made a speech full of the fairest promises, assuring them 
that Marcus should be his model, and swearing that he would 
put no senator to death, unless condemned by themselves — 
an oath which he kept but indifferently. The usual titles 
and powers had been already decreed him; among these 
was the title of Pertinax, of which prince he affected to be 
the avenger, and the ceremony of whose deification he per- 
formed with the greatest magnificence and solemnity. He 
distributed large sums of money among the soldiers and 
people ; he regulated the supply of provisions, and he ex- 
amined into the conduct of several governors of provinces, 
and punished those who were proved guilty of oppression 
or extortion. 

Severus restored the praetorian guards, on a new model, 
and raised them to four times their original number. Au- 
gustus had admitted none but Italians into this body ; the 
youth of Spain, Noricum, and Macedonia, had gradually 
been suffered to enlist in it ; but Severus threw it open to 
all, selecting the ablest and most faithful soldiers from the 
legions, for the higher pay and more easy life of the guards- 
men. 

After a stay of only thirty days in Rome, Severus set 



A. D. 194-196.] PESCENNIUS NIGER. 201 

out for the war against Niger, who was master of all Asia, 
and held the strong city of Byzantium in Europe. The 
preparations, on both sides, occupied some time ; at length, 
Severus took the field ; and, leaving part of his troops to 
carry on the siege of Byzantium, he sent the main body of 
his army, under his generals, over the Hellespont, ^mil- 
ianus, the proconsul of Asia, gave them battle (194) near 
Cyzicus, but was defeated. He fled to Cyzicus, and thence 
to another unnamed town, where he was seized and put to 
death. Niger, in person, afterwards engaged the Severian 
general, Candidus, between Nicsea and Kios. The contest 
was long and arduous, but victory declared for the European 
army ; and Niger, leaving troops to guard the passes of Mount 
Taurus, hastened to Antioch, to raise men and money. The 
elements, however, favored Severus ; heavy falls of rain and 
snow destroyed the defences constructed by Niger, and his 
troops were obliged to abandon the passes, and leave Cilicia 
open to the enemy, 

Niger made his final stand at the Cilician Gates, as the 
pass from Cilicia into Syria, at the head of the Bay of Issus, 
was named, a place famous for the defeat of Darius by Alex- 
ander the Great. The troops of Niger were more numerous, 
but they were mostly raw levies; yet they fought with con- 
stancy ; but the elements, we are told, again favored the Seve- 
rians ; a storm of rain and thunder came over the sea, and 
blew full in the faces of the Nigrians, and they fled, with the 
loss of 20,000 men. Niger hastened to Antioch ; and thence, 
on the approach of the enemy, he fled to the Euphrates, in 
order to seek refuge with the Parthians ; but he had hardly 
quitted the town, when he was seized, and his head was cut 
off and sent to Severus. 

This emperor, who had been in none of the preceding 
actions, now appeared. He put to death all the senators who 
had borne arms for Niger ; he banished some, and seized the 
property of others. He put numbers of inferior rank to death ; 
and he treated severely Antioch and some other towns. He 
then (195) led his army over the Euphrates; and his gen- 
erals employed this and a part of the following year in 
reducing the various tribes and princes of Mesopotamia. 
While he was thus engaged, (196,) he received the joyful in- 
telligence of the surrender of Byzantium; which, strong by 
situation and fortifications, had held out for nearly three 
years against the valor and skill of the besieging army, and 
was only subdued, at last, by famine. The magistrates and 

z 



202 SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. [a. D. 19T. 

soldiers were all put to death; the property of the inhabitants 
was sold; the walls and the public edifices were demolished; 
Byzantium was deprived of its title of city, and subjected, as 
a village, to the jurisdiction of Perinthus. 

It is said that Severus was meditating an invasion of Par- 
thia ; but his thoughts were more fixed on securing the suc- 
cession to his children, by removing Albinus. Suitably to 
his character, he resolved to proceed by treachery, rather 
than by force. He wrote to Albinus, in the most affectionate 
terms, as to his dearest brother ; but the bearers of the letter 
were instructed to ask a private audience, as having matters 
of greater importance to communicate, and then to assassinate 
him. The suspicions of Albinus, however, being awaked, 
he put them to the torture, and extracted the truth. He saw 
that he had no alternative, that he must be emperor or 
nothing ; and he therefore declared himself Augustus, and 
passed with his army over to Gaul. Severus returned, with 
all possible speed, from the East, and advanced in person 
into Gaul against his rival. He crossed the Alps in the 
depth of winter ; and, after some minor engagements, a deci- 
sive battle was fought on the 19th of February, 197, in the 
neighborhood of Lyons. The united number of the combat- 
ants was 150,000 men ; the battle was long and dubious ; the 
left wing, on each side, was routed ; but Severus, who now 
fought for the first time, brought up the praetorians to the 
support of his beaten troops ; and, though he received a 
wound, and was driven back, he rallied them once more ; 
and, being supported by the cavalry, under his general, 
LaBtus, he defeated and pursued the enemy to Lyons. The 
loss, on both sides, was considerable; Albinus slew himself, 
and his head was cut off, and brought to his ungenerous 
enemy, who meanly insulted it ; his wife and children were 
at first spared ; but they were soon after put to death, and 
their bodies cast into the Rhine. 

The city of Lyons was pillaged and burnt ; the chief sup- 
porters of Albinus, both men and women, Romans and pro- 
vincials, were put to death, and their properties confiscated. 
Having spent some time in regulating the affairs of Gaul and 
Britain, Severus returned to Rome, breathing vengeance 
against the senate ; for he knew that that body was in general 
more inclined to Albinus than himself, and he had found, 
among his rival's papers, the letters of several individual sen- 
ators. The very day after his arrival, he addressed them, 
commending the stern policy of Sulla, Marius, and Augustus, 



A.D. 198-203.] SEVERUS IN ASIA. 203 

and blaming the mildness of Pompeius and Caesar, which 
proved their ruin. He spoke in terms of praise of Commo- 
dus, saying that the senate had no right to dishonor him, as 
many of themselves lived vi'orse than he had done. He spoke 
severely of those who had written letters or sent presents to 
Albinus. Of these he pardoned five-and-thirty ; but he put 
to death nine-and-twenty, among whom was Sulpicianus, the 
father-in-law of Pertinax. These, however, were not the 
only victims; the whole family of Niger, and several other 
illustrious persons, perished. The properties of all were 
confiscated; for avarice, more perhaps than a thirst of blood, 
impelled Severus to cruelty. 

After a short stay at Rome, Severus set out again for the 
East ; for the Parthians, taking advantage of his absence, 
had invaded Mesopotamia, and laid siege to Nisibis. They 
retired, however, when they heard of his approach; and Se- 
verus, having passed the winter in Syria, making preparations 
for the war, crossed the Tigris the following summer, (198,) 
and laid siege to Ctesiphon. The Roman soldiers suffered 
greatly for want of supplies, and were reduced to feed on 
roots and herbage, which produced dysenteries; but the em- 
peror persevered, and the city at length was taken. All the 
full-orrown males were massacred, and the women and chil- 
dren, to the number of 100,000, were sold for slaves. As 
want of supplies did not permit the Romans to remain be- 
yond the Tigris, they returned to Mesopotamia; and, on his 
way to Syria, (199,) Severus laid siege to the redoubtable 
Atra, but he was forced to retire, with a great loss both of 
men and machines. He renewed the attack some time after, 
(it is uncertain in what year,) but with as little success, be- 
ing obliged to retire with loss and disgrace from before the 
impregnable fortress. 

Severus remained in the East till the year 203. He spent 

a part of that time in Egypt, where he took great pleasure 

in examining the pyramids and the other curiosities of that 

' country. He at length returned to Rome, to celebrate the 

marriao-e of his elder son. 

The family of Severus consisted of his wife and two sons. 
The empress, named Julia Domna, was a native of Emesa 
in Syria, whom Severus, who was addicted to astrology, is 
said to have espoused because she had a royal nativity. She 
was a woman of great beauty, sense, and spirit, and a culti- 
vator of literature and philosophy. The elder son was at 
first named Bassianus ; but his father, at the time of the war 



S04 SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. [a. D. 198. 

against Albinus, created him C;rsar, by the name of Aurelius 
Antoninus;* and he was subsequently nicknamed Caracalla, 
which, to avoid confusion, is the name employed by modern 
historians. In the year 198, Severus created him Augustus, 
and made him his associate in the empire. The name of the 
emperor's younger son was Geta; and he also was styled 
Antoninus. 

The bride selected for Caracalla was Plautilla, the daugh- 
ter of Plautianus, the praUorian prefect. This man was a 
second Sejanus j and it is very remarkable that two emperors 
of such superior mental powers as Tiberius and Severus 
should have been so completely under the influence of their 
ministers. Plautianus, like his master, was an African by 
birth J he was of mean extraction, and he seems to have 
early attached himself to the fortune of his aspiring coun- 
tryman, whose favor and confidence he won in an extraor- 
dinary degree ; and when Severus attained the empire, the 
power of Plautianus grew to such a height that he, the his- 
torian observes, was, as it were, emperor, and Severus cap- 
tain of the guards. Persons like Plautianus, when eleva- 
ted, rarely bear their faculties meekly. He was therefore 
proud, cruel, and avaricious; he was the chief cause of so 
many persons of rank and fortune being put to death, in 
order that he might gain their properties. He seized what- 
ever took his fancy, whether sacred or profane, and he thus 
amassed such wealth that it was connnonly said he was richer 
than Severus and his sons. Such was his pride, that no one 
dared approach him without his permission ; and when he 
appeared in public, criers preceded him, ordering that no 
one should stop and gaze at him, but turn aside and look 
down. He would not allow his wife to visit or to receive 
visits, not even excepting the empress. As his power was so 
great, he was of course the object of universal adulation. 
The senators and soldiers swore by his fortune, and his 
statues were set up in all parts of the empire. He was in 
effect more dreaded and more honored than the emperor 
himself 

Such power is, however, unstable in its very nature ; and 
the marriage of his daughter with the son of the emperor 

* Severiis, not content with expressing his veneration and respect 
for the memory of M. Aurelius, had tlie folly to pretend to be his son. 
" What most aminzed us," says Dion, (Ixxv. 7,) " was his saying that 
he was the son of Marcus and brother of Commodus." 



A. D. 203-208.] PLAUTIANUS. 205' 

caused the downfall of Plautianus. The wedding was cele- 
brated with the utmost magnificence; the dower of the bride, 
we are told, would have portioned fifty princesses ; and, as it 
was the custom of the East for ladies to be attended by 
eunuchs, Plautianus [reduced to this condition] not less than 
one hundred persons of noble birth, many of them fathers of 
families, in order to place them about his daughter on this 
occasion. Plautilla was haughty, like himself; and Cara- 
calla, who had been forced to marry her, hated father and 
daughter alike, and resolved on their destruction. He induced 
one Saturninus and two other centurions to declare that 
Plautianus had ordered them and seven of their comrades to 
murder Severus and his son. A written order to this effect 
was forged and shown to the emperor, who forthwith sum- 
moned Plautianus to his presence. He came, suspecting 
nothing ; he was admitted, but his followers were excluded. 
Severus, however, addressed him in a mild tone, and asked 
him why he had meditated killing him. Plautianus was ex- 
pressing his surprise, and commencing his defence, when 
Caracalla sprang forward, tore his sword from him, struck 
him with his fist, and would have slain him with his own 
hand, but for the interference of his father. He then made 
some of his attendants despatch him, and sent his head to 
the empress and Plautilla — a joyful sight to the one, a mourn- 
ful spectacle to the other. Plautilla and her brother Plau- 
tius were sent to the isle of Lipara, where they lived in 
poverty and misery for the remainder of the reign of Severus ; 
and their murder was one of the first acts of Caracalla, when 
emperor. 

Severus now remained in Italy for a space of four years, 
actively engaged in the administration of justice, the regula- 
tion of the finances, and the correction of all kinds of abuses. 
He conferred the important post of praetorian prefect on 
Papinian, the most renowned of jurisconsults ; and as it was 
now a part of this officer's duty to try civil causes, Papinian 
appointed, as his assessors, Paulus and Ulpian — names nearly 
as distinguished as his own. 

In the year 208, Severus, though far advanced in years, 
and a martyr to the gout, set out for Britain, where the 
northern tribes had, for some time, been making their usual 
incursions into the Roman part of the island. Various mo- 
tives are assigned for this resolution; the most probable is, 
that he wished to remove his sons from the luxury of Rome,, 
and to restore the relaxed discipline of the legions. He en- 

CONTIN. 18 



206 SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. [a. D. 211. 

tered the wild country north of the Roman wall, cut down the 
woods, and passed the marshes, and succeeded in penetrating 
to the extremity of the island, though with a loss, it is said, 
of 50,000 men ; for the barbarians, who would never venture 
to give him battle, hung on his flanks and rear, formed 
numerous ambuscades, and cut off all stragglers. In order 
to check their future incursions, he repaired and strength- 
ened the mound or wall which Hadrian had constructed from 
the Eden to the Tyne. 

Severus had associated his second son, Geta, in the empire 
the year he came to Britain. But the two brothers hated 
each other mortally, and Caracalla made little secret of his 
resolution to reign alone. This abandoned youth, it is said, 
even attempted to kill his father in the very sight of the 
Roman legions and the barbarian enemies ; for, as the em- 
peror was riding, one day, to receive the arms of the Cale- 
donians, Caracalla drew his sword to stab him in the back : 
those who were about them cried out, and Severus, on turn- 
ino- round, saw the drawn sword in the hand of his son. He 
said nothing at the time; but, when he returned, he called 
Caracalla, with Papinian and the chamberlain Castor, to him 
in private, and, causing a sword to be laid before him, rebuked 
his son, and then told him, if he desired his death, to slay him 
with his own hand, or to order Papinian, the prefect, to do it, 
who of course would obey him, as he was emperor. Cara- 
calla showed no signs of remorse; and, though Severus had 
often blamed M. Aurelius for postponing his public duty to 
his private affections, in the case of Commodus, he himself 
exhibited even greater and more culpable weakness. 

Severus was once more about to take the field against the 
barbarians, who had renewed their ravages, (211,) when a 
severe fit of the gout carried him off, at York, {Eburacmn,) 
in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and the eighteenth of his 
reign. 

Though this emperor had passed the greater part of his 
life in civil rather than military employments, it is remarkable 
that his government relied more on the arms of the soldiery 
than that of any of his predecessors, and that more than any 
he corrupted the military spirit of the nation, by excessive 
indulgence to the soldiers. We have seen the important 
changes which he made in the praetorian guards, whom he 
also seems to have been the first to employ on foreign ser- 
vice. Hitherto the legions of the frontiers had maintained 
something of the appearance of those of the republic ; but 



A. D. 211.] CARACALLA. 207 

Severus unstrung the nerves of their discipline by allowing 
them to have their wives and families in their camps, and to 
wear gold rings, like the knights, and by increasing their 
pay, and accustoming them to donatives. His dyin^ counsel 
to his sons, " Be united, enrich the soldiers, despise all 
others," revealed his principles of despotic government. 



CHAPTER IV.* 

CARACALLA, MACRINUS, ELAGABALUS, 
ALEXANDER. 

A. u. 964—988. A. D. 211—235. 

caracalla and geta. murder of geta. cruelty of 

caracalla. german war. parthian war. massa- 
cre at alexandria. murder of caracalla. eleva- 
tion of macrinus. his origin and character. con- 
spiracy against him. his defeat and death. ela- 

gabalus. his superstition and cruelty. adoption 

of alexander. death of elegabalus. mam^a. 

Alexander's character and mode of life. — murder 

OF ULPIAN. revolution in PERSIA. PERSIAN WAR. 

ALEXANDER IN GAUL. HIS MURDER. THE ROMAN ARMY. 

M. Aurelius Antoninus Caracalla. 

A. u. 964—970. A. D. 211—217. 

In spite of the efforts of Caracalla to the contrary, the 
army proclaimed the two sons of Severus joint emperors. 
The Caledonian war was abandoned, and the emperors re- 
turned to Rome, to celebrate the obsequies of their father. 
On the way, Caracalla made various attempts on the life of 
his brother ; but Geta was protected by the soldiery, of whom 
he was the favorite. The brothers adopted every precaution 
against each other on the road, and at Rome they divided 
the palace, securing all the approaches to their several por- 

* Authorities : Dion, Herodian, the Augustan History, Zosiraus, 
and the Epitomators. 



208 CARACALLA. [a. D. 212. 

tions. The court, the camp, the senate, and the people, were 
divided in their affections to the brothers, neither of whom 
was, in reality, deserving of the attachment of any man of 
worth ; but Geta had a certain degree of mildness and 
humanity, of affability, and of devotion to literature, which 
gave him the advantage over his more ferocious brother, and 
gained him the affection of their mother, Julia. 

As there seemed no probability of concord between the 
brothers, a division of the empire was proposed and arranged, 
by which Caracalla was to retain the European portion, while 
Geta was to rule in Asia and Egypt, residing at Antioch or 
Alexandria. This arrangement, it is said, was defeated by 
the tears and entreaties of Julia ; and Caracalla, bent on 
reigrnina^ alone, then resolved on the murder of his brother. 
At iiis desire, (212,) Julia invited her two sons to a meeting 
in her apartments. Geta came, suspecting no danger ; sud- 
denly some centurions, whom Caracalla had placed in con- 
cealment, rushed out, and fell on him. He threw himself on 
his mother's bosom for protection ; but her efforts to save him 
were vain ; she herself received a wound in the arm, and was 
covered with the blood of her murdered son. When the deed 
was done, Caracalla hastened to the camp, crying all the way 
that a plot had been laid for his life. He flung himself down 
before the standards, in the camp chapel, to return thanks for 
his preservation ; and then addressed the soldiers, assuring 
them that he was one of themselves, and depended on them 
alone. He promised to raise their pay one half, and to dis- 
tribute among them all the treasures accumulated by his 
father. Such arguments could not fail of convincing, and 
he was readily proclaimed sole emperor. He thence pro- 
ceeded to the camp, at the Alban Mount,* where he found 
more difficulty, as the soldiers there were much attached to 
Geta; but, by dint of promises, he gained them also to 
acknowledge him. 

Followed by the soldiers, Caracalla then proceeded to the 
senate-house ; he had a cuirass under his robe, and he 
brought some of his military followers into the house. He 
justified his conduct by the example of Romulus and others; 
but he spoke of Geta with regret, and gave him a magnificent 
funeral, and placed him among the gods.t 

* This was a camp of the praetorians also. The troops belonging to 
it are called the Albanians by the historians. 

t " Sit £?irM5 dummodo non sit vivus^" are said to have been his 
words. - 



A. D. 214-215.] CRUELTY OF CARACALLA. 209 

The unhappy empress dared not lament the death of her 
son ; she was even obliged to wear an aspect of joy for the 
safety of the emperor, who, all through his reign, continued 
to treat her with respect, and to give her a share in the 
affairs of state. But on all the other friends and favorers 
of Geta, both civil and military, he let his vengeance fall 
without restraint ; and the number of those who perished on 
this account is estimated at twenty thousand. Among these, 
the most regretted was the great Papinian. Caracalla, it is 
said, wished him to compose an apology for the murder of 
Geta; but he replied, with virtuous intrepidity, that it was not 
so easy to excuse a parricide as to commit it. A soldier cut 
off his head with an axe, and Caracalla rebuked him for not 
having used a sword. Fadilla, the surviving daughter of M. 
Aurelius, was put to death for having lamented Geta. Hel- 
vius Pertinax, son of the emperor, Thrasea Priscus, a de- 
scendant of the great lover of liberty, and many other persons 
of rank and virtue, were involved in the common ruin. To 
such an extent, it is said, did Caracalla carry his hatred to 
his brother, that the comic poets no longer ventured to em- 
ploy the name of Geta in their plays. 

Like Commodus, the emperor devoted most of his time to 
the circus and amphitheatre. In order to defray his enor- 
mous expenses, he increased the taxes and confiscated all 
the properties he could lay hold on. When his mother one 
day blamed him for bestowing such enormous sums on the 
soldiers, and said that he would soon have no source of reve- 
nue remaining, he laid his hand on his sword, and said, in 
the true spirit of despotism, " Never fear, mother ; while 
we have this, we shall not want for money." 

One of the acts of Caracalla, at this time, was to confer 
the rights of citizenship, of which the old republicans had 
been so chary, on all the subjects of the empire. 

His restless temper soon urged him to seek for glory in a 
contest with the Germans. He marched to the Rhine, and 
obtained (by purchase, as it would seem) some advantages 
over the confederacy of the Alemans, whose name now first 
appears in history. He henceforth wonderfully affected the 
Germans, even wearing a blond periwig, to resemble them ; 
and he placed a number of them about him as guards. It is 
thought that it was on the occasion of his return to Rome 
from Gaul, after this war, (214,) that he distributed among 
the people the long Gallic coats, named Caracals^ whence 
he derived the appellation by which he is usually known. 

18* A A 



210 CARACALLA. [a. D. 215-216. 

After his German war, he marched to the Danube, (215,) 
visited the province of Dacia, and had some skirmishes with 
the neighboring barbarians. He then passed over to Asia 
with the intention of making war on the Parthians, and spent 
the winter at Nicomedia. 

As he professed an especial regard for the memory of 
Achilles, he visited the remains of Ilium, offered sacrifices 
at the tomb of the hero, led his troops in arms round it, and 
erected a brazen statue on its summit. One of his freed- 
men happening to die, or being poisoned by him for the 
purpose, he acted over again the Homeric funeral of Patro- 
clus, pouring, like Achilles, wine to the winds, to induce 
them to inflame the pyre, and cutting off the hair, with which 
nature had furnished him most scantily, to cast into the 
flames. In thus honoring Achilles, he sought to follow the 
example of Alexander the Great — a prince of whom his ad- 
miration was such that he erected statues of him every where ; 
and he formed a phalanx of sixteen thousand Macedonians 
armed as in the time of that prince, whom he styled the 
Eastern Augustus. He even persecuted the Peripatetic phi- 
losophers, because Aristotle was accused of being concerned 
in the death of his royal pupil. 

In the spring, (216,) Caracalla set out for Antioch. The 
Parthians averted a war by the surrender of two persons 
whom he demanded. By treachery, he made himself master 
of the persons of the king of Armenia and his sons, and of 
the prince of Edessa ; but the Armenians defeated the troops 
which he sent against them under Theocritus, a common 
player, whom he had raised to the dignity of praetorian pre- 
fect. He then proceeded to Alexandria with the secret re- 
solve of taking a bloody vengeance on the inhabitants of that 
•city for their railleries and witticisms against him on the 
occasion of the murder of his brother. When he approached 
the city, the people came forth to meet him, with all the 
marks of joy and respect, and he received them graciously, 
and entered the town. Then, pretending a design of form- 
ing a phalanx in honor of Alexander, he directed all the 
youth to appear in the plain without the walls. When they 
had done as required, he went through them, as it were to 
inspect them ; and then, retiring to the temple of Serapis, he 
gave the signal to his soldiers to fall on them and massacre 
them. The slaughter was dreadful both within and without 
the walls, for no age or rank was spared. Trenches were 
dug, and the dead and dying were flung into them, in order 



A. D. 217.] MACRINUS. 211 

to conceal the extent of the massacre. He deprived the city 
of all its privileges, and its total ruin vv^as only averted by 
his death. 

After this slaughter of his helpless subjects, Caracalla re- 
turned to Antioch ; and, in order to have a pretext for making 
Vi^ar on the Parthians, he sent to Artabanus, their king, de- 
manding his daughter in marriage. The Parthian monarch 
having refused this strange suit, Caracalla invaded and rav- 
aged his territories; and, having taken Arbela, vv^here were 
the royal tombs, he opened them, and scattered the bones of 
the monarchs which were deposited within them. He then 
took up his winter quarters in Edessa. 

In the spring, (217,) both sides were engaged in active 
preparation for war; when a conspiracy in his own army 
terminated the life and reign of the Roman emperor. Of 
the two praetorian prefects, the one, Adventus, was a mere 
soldier, the other, Macrinus, was a civilian, well versed in 
the laws. The rough and brutal Caracalla often ridiculed 
him on this account, and even menaced his life ; and Macri- 
nus, having got sure information that his destruction was de- 
signed, resolved to anticipate the tyrant. He accordingly com- 
municated his designs to some of the ofScers of the guards, 
among whom was one Martial, whom Caracalla had mortally 
offended by refusing him the post of centurion, or, as others 
say, by putting his brother to death. Accordingly, on the 
8th of April, 217, as the emperor was riding from Edessa to 
Carrhae in order to worship at the temple of the Moon, and 
had retired and alighted for a private occasion. Martial ran 
up, as if called, and stabbed him in the throat. The empe- 
ror fell down dead. Martial mounted his horse and fled ; 
but he was shot by a Scythian archer of the guard. 



M. Opilius Macrinus. 

A. u. 970—971. A. D. 217—218. 

When the news of the murder of the emperor was di- 
vulged, Macrinus was the first to hasten to the spot, and to 
deplore his death. As Caracalla had left no heir, the army 
was uncertain whom to proclaim emperor in his stead, and 
the empire was for four days without a chief. Meantime 
the officers who were in the interests of Macrinus, used all 
their influence with their men, and on the fourth day he was 



212 MACRINUS. [a. d. 217. 

saluted emperor. He accepted the office with feigned reluc- 
tance ; and he distributed, according to custom, large sums 
of money among the soldiers. Adventus was the bearer of 
the ashes of Caracalla to Rome, where they were deposited 
in the tomb of the Antonines ; and Macrinus and the senate 
were obliged to yield to the instances of the soldiers, and 
place the monster among the gods. The senate received 
with joy the letter in which Macrinus announced his eleva- 
tion to the empire, and they decreed him all the usual titles 
and honors. 

While these changes were taking place in the Roman 
empire, Artabanus had passed the Tigris with a large army. 
Macrinus, having in vain proposed terms of accommodation, 
led out his legions, and some fighting took place in the 
neighborhood of Nisibis, in which the advantage was on the 
side of the Parthians ; but, as they now began to feel the 
want of supplies, and were anxious to return home, they 
readily listened to the renewed proposals of the Roman 
emperor, and a peace was concluded. Macrinus then led 
his troops back to Antioch for the winter. 

Macrinus, as we have already observed, was not a military 
man. He was a native of CsBsarea in Africa, {Algiers,) of 
humble origin, and he was indebted for his elevation to his 
countryman Plautianus. He was a man of an amiable dis- 
position, and a sincere lover of justice. He therefore turned 
his attention chiefly to civil regulations, and he made some 
necessary reforms and excellent laws ; but he was timid by 
nature, and, in his anxiety to serve and advance his friends, 
he did not sufficiently consider their fitness for the employ- 
ments which he bestowed on them. He committed a great 
and irreparable fault in not setting out for Rome at once, 
and in keeping the army all together in Syria ; and he further 
commenced too soon a necessary but imprudent attempt at 
bringing back the discipline of the legions to what it had 
been under Severus; for, though he applied it only to re- 
cruits, and did not interfere with the old soldiers, these last 
apprehended that the reform would at length reach them- 
selves ; and they became highly discontented. This feeling 
of the soldiers was soon taken advantags of, and a rival set 
up to Macrinus. 

The empress Julia was at Antioch at the time of the mur- 
der of Caracalla. Macrinus wrote to her in very obliging 
terms ; but, in the first transports of her grief at the death of 
her son, or the loss of her power, she had given herself sev- 



A. ij. 218.] cONSPiRAcir. 213 

eral blows on the breast, and thus irritated a cancer with 
which she was afflicted, and her death ensued. Her sister, 
named Massa, who had lived at court during the two last 
reigns, and had acquired immense wealth, retired, by order 
of Macrinus, to her native town of Emesa. She had two 
daughters, named Sosemis and Mamsea, each of whom was a 
widow with an only son; that of the former was named 
Bassianus ; he was now a handsome youth of seventeen years 
of age, and the influence of his family had procured for him 
the lucrative priesthood of the Sun, who was worshipped at 
Emesa under the title of Elagabalus. The Roman troops 
who were encamped near the town, used to frequent the 
temple, and they greatly admired the comely young priest, 
whom they knew to be a cousin of their lamented Caracalla. 
The artful Maesa resolved to take advantage of that feeling, 
and she made no scruple to sacrifice the reputation of her 
daughters to the hopes of empire : she therefore declared 
(what was perhaps true) that Caracalla used to cohabit with 
her daughters in the palace, and that Bassianus was in reali- 
ty his son. Her assertion, backed with large sums of money, 
and lavish promises of more, found easy acceptance with the 
soldiers. On the night of the 15th of May, ^18, she and her 
daughter and grandson, and the rest of her family, conducted 
by their eunuch Gannys, a man of great talent, stole out of 
the city, and proceeded to the camp, where they were joy- 
fully received; and Bassianus was proclaimed emperor by 
the title of M. Aurelius Antoninus. The camp was imme- 
diately put into a state of defence against a siege ; and num- 
bers of the other soldiers hastened to sustain the cause of 
the son of Caracalla. 

Macrinus sent the praetorian prefect, Ulpius Julianus, 
against the rebels. This officer was successful in his first 
attack on their camp ; but, having neglected to push his advan- 
tage, he gave the enemy time for tampering with his troops, 
a part of whom abandoned him ; and he was taken and slain. 
Macrinus had meantime advanced as far as Apamea ; where 
he declared his son Diadumenianus, a boy of only ten years 
of age, Augustus ; and took this opportunity of promising a 
large gratuity to the army ; he also wrote against Bassianus, 
to the senate and governors of provinces. But instead of 
advancing rapidly against the rebels, he fell back to Antioch, 
whither they speedily followed him, and he was forced to 
give them battle near that town. The troops of Bassianus 
were ably disposed by the eunuch Gannys, who, now in arms 



^14 ELAGABALUS. [a. D. 219. 

for the first time in his life, showed the talents of a general. 
But the praetorians, on the side of Macrinus, fought with 
such determined valor, that the rebels were on the point of 
flying, when Maesa and Sosemis rushed out and stopped 
them ; and Bassianus, sword in hand, led them on to the 
combat. Still the praetorians gave not way, and victory 
would have declared for Macrinus, had he not dastardly fled 
in the midst of the battle. His troops, when assured of his 
flight, declared for Bassianus. 

. Macrinus fled in disguise, and never stopped till he came 
to Chalcedon, where he was taken and put to death ; and his 
innocent son shared his fate. His reign had lasted only four- 
teen months. 



M. Aurelius Antoninus Elagahalus. 
a. u. 971—975. A. D. 218—222. 

From Antioch Elagabalus,* as we shall henceforth style 
him, wrote to the senate a letter replete with abuse of Ma- 
crinus, and promising that he himself would take Augustus 
and M. Aurelius for his models. From ignorance, or from 
arrogance, he assumed in it the title of Augustus and others, 
which the senate had been hitherto in the habit of confer- 
ring. They bitterly lamented the cowardice of Macrinus, 
and his error in not coming to Rome ; but they submitted, 
though with a sigh, to the rule of the pretended son of 
Caracalla. 

Elagabalus passed the winter at Nicomedia. While there, 
he put to death, with his own hand, Gannys, who had been 
the chief means of procuring him the empire, but who now 
wished to make him lead a regular and decorous life. Sev- 
eral persons of rank, both at Rome and in the provinces, had 
already perished by his orders, and men had little hopes of 
seeing the public good promoted by the new emperor. 

As soon as the season permitted, (219,) Msesa, who was 
impatient to return to Rome, urged her grandson to com- 
mence his journey. He had some time before sent thither 
his picture, with orders to have it hung up over the statue 
of Victory in the senate- house. In this, which was a full- 
length portrait, he appeared habited in the long, loose, Asiatic 

* So he is more correctly named by the Greek writers ; the Latins 
name him Heliogabalus. 



A. D. 219-2'22.] ELAGABALUS. 215 

dress, with collars and necklaces, and a tiara set with gold 
and precious stones on his head ; and in this attire the senate 
and people beheld him. entering the capital, MsEsa having 
essayed in vain to make him assume the Roman habit. He 
gave the usual shows and distributions of money to the peo- 
ple. On the first day of his appearance in the senate, he 
caused his grandmother to be invited thither, and she took 
her seat by that of the consuls, and henceforth acted in all 
respects as one of the members. His mother held a senate 
of her own, composed of ladies, who regulated all matters 
relating to dress, precedence, and other matters of impor- 
tance to the sex. 

The great object of the emperor's life was the exaltation 
of the god of Emesa. The conical black stone which repre- 
sented him was brought to Rome, and a stately temple was 
built on the Palatine to receive it ; and the pious emperor 
proposed to transport thither the Palladium, the Ancilia, and 
all the sacred pledges of the empire, and thus to make it the 
centre of Roman religion. He also built for his god a tem- 
ple in the suburbs, whither the sacred stone was conveyed 
every spring in a magnificent car drawn by six milk-white 
horses, whose reins the emperor himself held, walking back- 
wards before them, with his eyes fixed on the image. The 
people flung flowers and garlands in the way ; the knights 
and the army joined in the procession, and when it reached 
the temple, gold and silver cups, garments, and all kinds of 
animals, except swine, were flung to the people to scramble 
for. Deeming it necessary that his god should have a wife, 
the emperor first selected Minerva for his bride, and removed 
her image to the palace for the wedding; but then, consider- 
ing that her rough and martial nature would make her an 
unsuitable mate for the soft, luxurious Syrian god, he gave 
the preference to the Astarte or Urania of Carthage; and 
her image, accompanied with much treasure by way of 
dowry, was brought to Rome and placed in the temple of 
the sun-god. 

Elagabalus himself married four difierent wives, one of 
whom was a Vestal, which he assured the senate was a most 
fitting union, as between a priest and a priestess. We dare 
not sully our pages with the catalogue of his unnatural lusts 
and other excesses; suffice it to say, that the enormities of 
Tiberius and Nero were equalled, if not outdone, by this 
wretched, abandoned youth. The basest and most vicious 



216 ELAGABALUS. [a. d. 219-222. 

of mankind were promoted to the highest offices, and the 
revenues of the empire were wasted with reckless prod- 
igality. • 

The sagacious Maesa saw the inevitable consequences of 
this wanton course, and she resolved to provide for the con- 
tinuance of her power ; she therefore persuaded Elagabalus 
to adopt and declare as Csesar his cousin Alexianus, a boy 
four years younger than himself He yielded to her desire, 
and adopted him in presence of the senate, giving him the 
name of Alexander, under the direction, he said, of his god. 
He at first sought to corrupt his morals and make him like 
himself; but the disposition of Alexander was naturally good, 
and his mother, Mamaea, took care to supply him with ex- 
cellent masters. He then endeavored to have him secretly 
destroyed, but he could find no agent, and Maesa discovered 
and disconcerted all his plans. 

The soldiers had long been disgusted with the vices and 
the effeminacy of the emperor, and all their hopes were 
placed on the young Alexander. The rage of Elagabalus 
against that youth became at length so great that he resolved 
to annul the adoption ; and he sent orders to the senate and 
soldiers no longer to give him the title of Cgesar. The con- 
sequence was a mutiny in the camp, and he was obliged to 
proceed thither, accompanied by Alexander, and agree to 
dismiss all the companions and agents of his vices, and to 
promise a reformation of his life. He thus escaped the 
present danger ; but his violent hatred of Alexander soon in- 
duced him to make a new effort to destroy him. To ascer- 
tain the temper of the soldiers, he caused a report to be 
spread of the death of that prince. A tumult instantly arose, 
which was only appeased by his appearing in the camp with 
Alexander ; but finding how quickly it then subsided, he 
thought he might venture on punishing some of the ring- 
leaders. A tumult instantly broke out. Soaemis and Ma- 
maea animated their respective partisans ; but those of the 
latter proved victorious, and the wretched Elagabalus was 
dragged from a privy, in which he had concealed himself, 
and slain in the arms of his mother, who shared his fate. A 
stone was fastened to his body, which was flung into the 
Tiber. Almost all his minions and ministers fell victims to 
the popular vengeance. 



A. D. 222-232.J ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 217 

M. Aurelius Alexander Severus. 
A. u. 975—988. A. D. 222— -235. 

Both the senate and the army joyfully concurred in the 
elevation of Alexander to the empire ; and the former body, 
lest any competitor should appear, hastened to confer on 
him all the imperial titles and powers. On account of his 
youth and his extremely amiable disposition, he was entirely 
directed by his grandmother and mother ; but, Maesa dying 
soon after his accession, the sole direction of her son fell to 
Mamaea. There is some reason to suppose that this able 
woman had embraced the Christian religion, now so preva- 
lent throughout the empire ; at all events, in her guidance 
of public affairs, she exhibited a spirit of wisdom, justice, and 
moderation such as had not appeared in any preceding em- 
press. Her enemies laid to her charge the love of power 
and the love of money, and blamed her son for deferring too 
much to her ; but their accusations are vague, and no act of 
cruelty, caused by avarice, stains the annals of this reign. 

The first care of Mamsea was to form a wise and upright 
council for her son. Sixteen of the most respectable of the 
senate, with the learned Ulpian, the-prastorian prefect, at 
their head, composed this council, and nothing was ever, 
done without their consent and approbation. A generali 
system of reformation was commenced and steadily pursued. 
All the absurd acts of the late tyrant were reversed. His 
god was sent back to Emesa; the statues of the other deities 
were restored to their temples ; the ministers of his vices 
and pleasures were sold or banished ; some of the worst were 
drowned ; the unworthy persons whom he had placed in 
public situations were dismissed, and men of knowledge and 
probity put in their places. 

Mamaea used the utmost care to keep away from her son 
all those persons by whom his morals might be corrupted ; 
and, in order to have his time fully occupied, she induced him 
to devote the greater part of each day to the administration 
of justice, where none but the wise and good would be his 
associates. The good seed fortunately fell into a kindly soil. 
Alexander was naturally disposed to every virtue, and all his 
efforts were directed to the promotion of the welfare of the 
empire over which he ruled. 

The first ten years of the reign of this prince were passed 
at Rome, and devoted to civil occupations. His daily course 

CONTIN. 19 B B 



218 ALEXANDER SEVERUS. [a. D. 222-232. 

of life has been thus transmitted to us . He usually rose 
early, and entered his private chapel, (lararium,) in which 
he had caused to be placed the images of those who had 
been teachers and benefactors of the human race, among 
whom he included the divine founder of the Christian reli- 
gion. Having performed his devotions, he took some kind 
of exercise, and then applied himself for some hours to pub- 
lic business with his council. He then read for some time, 
his favorite works being the Republics of Plato and Cicero, 
and the verses of Horace, and the Life of Alexander the 
Great, whom he greatly admired. Gymnastic exercises, in 
which he excelled, succeeded. He then was anointed and 
bathed, and took a light breakfast, usually of bread, milk, 
and eggs. In the afternoon, he was attended by his secre- 
taries, and he heard his letters read, and signed the answers 
to them. The business of the day being concluded, his 
friends in general were admitted, and a frugal and simple 
dinner followed, at which the conversation was mostly of a 
serious, instructive nature, or some literary work was read 
out to the emperor and his guests. 

The dress of Alexander was plain and simple ; his man- 
ners were free from all pride and haughtiness ; he lived with 
the senators on a footing of friendly equality, like Augustus, 
Vespasian, and the wiser and better emperors. He was 
liberal and generous to all orders of the people, and he took 
an especial pleasure in assisting those persons of good family, 
who had fallen into poverty without reproach. Among the 
virtues of Alexander, was the somewhat rare one, in that 
age, of chastity. His mother early caused him to espouse a 
lady of noble birth, named Memnia, whom, however, he 
afterwards divorced, and even banished to Africa. The ac- 
counts of this affair differ greatly. According to one, the 
father of the empress formed a conspiracy against his son-in- 
law, which being discovered, he was put to death, and his 
daughter divorced. Others say that, as Alexander showed 
great respect for his father-in-law, Mamasa's jealousy was ex- 
cited, and she caused him to be slain, and his daughter to be 
divorced or banished. It appears that Alexander soon mar- 
ried again. 

We have already observed, that a portion of the civil juris- 
diction had fallen to the praetorian prefects. This imposed 
a necessity that one of them should be a civilian ; and Ma- 
maea had, therefore, caused this dignity to be conferred on 
Ulpian. From the love of law and order which distinguished 



A. D. 232.] PERSIAN WAR. 219 

this prefect, he naturally sought to bring back discipline in 
the praetorian camp ; the consequence was, that repeated at- 
tempts were made on his life, and the emperor, more than 
once, found it necessary to cast his purple over him, to save 
him from the fury of the soldiers. At length, (228,) they 
fell on him in the night ; he escaped from them to the palace, 
but they pursued and slaughtered him, in the presence of the 
emperor and his mother. 

Some slight actions on the German and Moorish fron- 
tiers were the only occupation given to the Roman arms 
during the early years of the reign of Alexander ; but, in the 
year 232, so powerful an enemy menaced the Oriental prov- 
inces of the empire, that the presence of the emperor became 
absolutely requisite in the East. 

The Parthians, whom we have had such frequent occasion 
to mention, are said to have been a Scythian (z. e. Turkish) 
people, of the north of Persia, who, taking advantage of the 
declining power of the Macedonian kings of Syria, cast off 
their yoke, (B. C. 250,) and then gradually made themselves 
masters of the whole of Persia. Their dominion had now 
lasted for five hundred years, and their power had, from the 
usual causes, such as family dissensions, contested suc- 
cessions, and such like, been long on the decline; and in 
the fourth year of Alexander Severus, (226,) a native Per- 
sian, named Artaxerxes, (ArdsJiir,) who pretended to be of 
the ancient royal line, but who is said to have been of hum- 
ble birth, and a mere soldier of fortune, raised a rebellion 
against the Parthian king, Artabanus. Fortune favored the 
rebel, and Artabanus was defeated and slain. Artaxerxes 
then assumed the tiara, and his line, which existed till the 
Mohammedan conquest, was named the Sassanian, from the 
name of his father. 

Affecting to be the descendant of the ancient Achseme- 
nians, Artaxerxes sought to restore Persia to its condition 
under those princes. The Magian or Light religion * re- 
sumed the rank from which it had fallen under the sway of 
the Parthians, and flourished in its pristine glory. As the 
dominions of the house of Cyrus had extended to the coasts 
of the ^gean sea, Artaxerxes ordered the Romans to quit 
Asia ; and, when his mandate was unheeded, he led his troops 

* [That is, the system by which the sun, and fire derived from it, 
were considered, from their brightness and purity, the only fit emblems 
of God ; and, as such emblems, worship was paid every morning at 
the rising of the sun. — J. T. S.] 



S20 ALEXANDER SEVERUS. [a. D. 232. 

over the Tigris. But his ill fortune induced him to attack 
the invincible Atra, and he was forced to retire with loss and 
disgrace. He then turned his arms against the Medes, and 
some other of the more northern tribes, and when he had 
reduced them, he again invaded Mesopotamia, (232.) Alex- 
ander now resolved to take the command of his troops in 
person. He left Rome, followed by the tears and prayers 
of the people, and proceeded through Illyricum to the East. 
On his march, the strictest discipline was maintained, while 
every attention was paid to the wants of the soldiers, and 
care taken, that they should be abundantly supplied with 
clothes and arms. The emperor himself used the same fare 
as the men ; and he caused his tent to be thrown open when 
he was at his meals, that they might perceive his mode 
of life. 

Alexander halted at Antioch, to make preparations for 
the war : meantime, he sent an embassy, with proposals of 
peace, to Artaxerxes. The Persian, in return, sent four 
hundred of his most stately men, splendidly clothed and 
armed, to order the Romans to quit Asia; and, if we can 
believe Herodian, (for the circumstance is almost incredible,) 
Alexander was so regardless of the laws of nations, as to 
seize and strip them, and send them prisoners to Phrygia. 
It is also said that, while he was at Antioch, finding that 
some of the soldiers frequented the Paphian grove of Daphne, 
he cast them into prison; and that, when a mutiny broke 
out in the legion to which they belonged, he ascended his 
tribunal, had the prisoners brought before him, and ad- 
dressed their comrades, who stood around in arms, dwelling 
on the necessity of maintaining discipline. But, when his 
arguments proved of no effect, and they even menaced him 
with their arms, he cried out, in imitation of Caesar, " Q,ui- 
rites, depart, and lay down your arms." The legion obeyed; 
and the men, no longer soldiers, took up their abode in the 
houses of the town, instead of the camp. After a month, 
the emperor was prevailed on to pardon them, but he pun- 
ished their tribunes with death ; and this legion was hence- 
forth equally distinguished by valor and fidelity. 

In imitation of Alexander the Great, the emperor formed 
six of his legions into a phalanx of thirty thousand men, to 
whom he gave higher pay. He also had, like that conquer- 
or, bodies of men distinguished by gold-adorned and silver- 
adorned shields — Chrysoaspids and Argyroaspids. 

The details of the war cannot be learned with any cer- 



A. D. 235.] PERSIAN WAR. 221 

tainty. One historian says that Alexander made three di- 
visions of his army ; one of which was to enter Media through 
Armenia, another Persia at the junction of the Tigris and 
Euphrates, while the emperor was in person to lead the 
third through Mesopotamia, and all were to join in the en- 
emy's country ; but that, owing to the timidity of Alexander, 
who loitered on the way, the second division was cut to 
pieces, and the first nearly all perished while retreating 
through Armenia in the winter. This account labors under 
many difficulties; for the emperor certainly triumphed on 
his return to Rome; and, in his speech to the senate on that 
occasion, he asserted that, of 700 war elephants, which were 
in the enemy's array, he had killed 200, and taken 300 ; of 
1,000 scythed chariots, he had taken 200 ; and of 120,000 
heavy-armed horsemen, he had slain 10,000, beside taking a 
great number of prisoners. It further appears that, though 
Alexander did not remain in the East, the Persian monarch 
made no further attempts on Mesopotamia for some years. 

The Germans had taken advantage of the absence of the 
emperor and the greater part of the troops in the East, to 
pass the Rhine and ravage Gaul. Alexander, therefore, 
leaving sufficient garrisons in Syria, led home the lUyrian 
and other legions ; and, having celebrated a triumph for the 
Persian war at Rome, where he was received with the most 
abundant demonstrations of joy, he departed with a large 
army for the defence of Gaul. The Germans retired at his 
approach ; he advanced to the Rhine, and took up his win- 
ter quarters in the neighborhood of Mentz, with the in- 
tention of opening the campaign beyond the river in the 
spring, (235.) 

The narratives of the events of this reign are so very dis- 
cordant, that we cannot hope often to arrive at the real truth. 
In no part are they more at variance than in their account 
of the circumstances of the emperor's death. We can only 
collect that, whether from his efforts to restore discipline, 
from the intrigues of Maximin, an ambitious officer who had 
the charge of disciplining the young troops, or from some 
other cause, a general discontent prevailed in the army, and 
that Alexander was assassinated in his tent, either by his 
own guards or by a party sent for the purpose by Maximin, 
and that his mother and several of his friends perished with 
him. The troops forthwith proclaimed Maximin empe- 
ror ; and the senate and people of Rome, deeply lamenting 
19* 



222 ALEXANDER SEVERUS. [a. D. 235. 

the fate of the virtuous Alexander, were forced to acquiesce 
in the choice of the army. 

Alexander had reigned thirteen years. Even the histo- 
rian least partial to him, acknowledges that toward his sub- 
jects his conduct was blameless, and that no bloodshed or 
unjust condemnations stain the annals of his reign. His 
fault seems to have been a certain degree of effeminacy 
and weakness, the consequence, probably, of his Syrian 
origin, which led to his extreme submission to his mother, 
against whom the charges of avarice and meanness are not 
perhaps wholly unfounded.* 

Dion Cassius, whose history ends with this reign, gives 
the following view of the numbers and disposition of the le- 
gions at this period.t Of the twenty-five which were formed 
by Augustus,! only nineteen remained, the rest having been 
broken or distributed through the others ; but the emperors, 
from Nero to Severus, inclusive, had formed thirteen new 
ones, and the whole now amounted to thirty-two legions. 
Of these, three were in Britain, one in Upper and two in 
Lower Germany, one in Italy, one in Spain, one in Numid- 
ia, one in Arabia, two in Palestine, one in Phoenicia, two in 
Syria, two in Mesopotamia, two in Cappadocia, two in Low- 
er and one in Upper Moesia, two in Dacia, and four in Pan- 
nonia, one in Noricum, and one in Rsetia. He does not 
tell us where the two remaining ones were quartered, neither 
does he give the number of men in a legion at this time ; 
but it is conjectured to have been five thousand. 

* The Life of Alexander, by Lampridius, in the Augustan History, 
is, as Gibbon observes, " the mere idea of a perfect prince an awkward 
imitation of the Cyropaedia." 

t Dion, Iv. 23. t See above, p. 36. 



A. D. 235.] THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 223 



CHAPTER v.* 

MAXIMIN, PUPIENUS, BALBINUS, AND GORDI- 
AN, PHILIP, DECIUS, GALLUS, iEMILIAN, 
VALERIAN, GALLIENUS. 

A. u. 988—1021. A. D. 235—268. 

THE EMPIRE. MAXIMIN. HIS TYRANNY. INSURRECTION 

IN AFRICA. THE GORDIANS. PUPIENUS AND BALBINUS. 

DEATH OP MAXIMIN. MURDER OF THE EMPERORS. 

GORDIAN. PERSIAN WAR. MURDER OF GORDIAN. 

PHILIP. SECULAR GAMES. DECIUS. DEATH OF PHILIP. 

THE GOTHS. GOTHIC WAR. DEATH OF DECIUS. 

GALLUS. iEMILIAN. VALERIAN. THE FRANKS. THE 

ALEMANS. GOTHIC INVASIONS. PERSIAN WAR. DE- 
FEAT AND CAPTIVITY OF VALERIAN. GALLIENUS. THE 

THIRTY TYRANTS. DEATH OF GALLIENUS. 

C. Julius Verus Maximinus. 
A. u. 988—991. A. D. 235—238. 

As we advance through the history of the Roman empire, 
we find it deteriorating at every step, the traces of civil 
government becoming continually more and more evanes- 
cent, and the power of the sword the only title under which 
obedience could be claimed. The government had, in fact, 
been a^ military despotism from the time of Augustus; but 
that prudent prince, and the best of his successors, had con- 
cealed the odious truth beneath the forms of law and civil 
regulations ; and perhaps it may be considered that his own 
reign, and the eighty-four years from Domitian to Commo- 
dus, are among the periods of the greatest happiness which 
mankind have enjoyed ; absolute power being wielded by 
wisdom and goodness. Human nature, however, does not 
permit such a state to endure ; and the thirteen years of 
Alexander Severus form but a gleam of sunshine in the po- 
litical gloom of the succeeding century. 

Elective monarchy is an evil of the greatest magnitude. 

* Authorities : Herodian, the Augustan History, Zosimus, and the 
Epitomators. 



224 MAXiMiN. [a. d. 235. 

He who cannot transmit his dominion to his son, will be in 
general little solicitous about its future condition. Nothing 
was farther from the intention of the founder of the Roman 
empire than that such should be its condition ; yet Provi- 
dence seems to have designedly thwarted all the efforts made 
to form an hereditary monarchy. The Csesarian family, and 
the good emperors, as they are called, were but a series of 
adoptions : a son sometimes succeeded his father ; but from 
Augustus till nearly the end of the empire, the imperial 
power never reached the third generation. The fiction of 
the two Syrian youths having been sons of Caracalla, was 
the last faint effort made in favor of the hereditary princi- 
ple : with Maximin commenced a new order ; and every sol- 
dier might now aspire to empire. 

Maximin was originally a Thracian peasant, of enormous 
size and strength ; his stature, we are told, exceeded eight 
feet ; his wife's bracelet made him a thumb-ring ; he could 
draw a loaded wagon, break a horse's leg with a kick, and 
crumble sandstones in his hands ; he often, it is added, ate 
forty pounds of meat in the day, and washed them down 
with seven gallons of wine. Hence he was named Hercules, 
Antaeus, and Milo of Croton. He became known to the 
emperor Severus on the occasion of his celebrating the 
birthday of his son Geta one time in Thrace. The young 
barbarian approached him, and, in broken Latin, craved 
permission to wrestle with some of the strongest of the 
camp followers ; he vanquished sixteen of them, and received 
as many prizes, and was admitted into the service. A cou- 
ple of days after, Severus, seeing him exulting at his good 
fortune, spoke to a tribune about him ; and Maximin, per- 
ceiving that he was the object of the emperor's discourse, 
began to run on foot by his horse ; Severus, to try his 
speed, put his horse to the gallop; but the young soldier 
kept up with him till the aged emperor was tired. Severus 
asked him if he felt inclined to wrestle after his running ; he 
replied in the affirmative, and overthrew seven of the strong- 
est soldiers. He rose rapidly in the service under Severus 
and his son ; he retired to his native village when Macrinus 
seized the empire; he disdained to serve Elagabalus, but 
the accession of Alexander induced him to return to Rome. 
He received the command of a legion, was made a senator, 
and the emperor even had thoughts of giving his sister in 
marriage to the son of the Thracian peasant. 

The first care of Maximin, when raised to the empire, was 



A. D. 235-236.] TYRANNY OF MAXIMIN. 225 

to dismiss from their employments all who were in the coun- 
cil or family of his predecessor ; and several were put to death 
as conspirators. He speedily displayed the native ferocity 
of his temper; for when, having completed a bridge of boats 
over the Rhine, commenced by Alexander, he was preparing 
to pass over into Germany, a conspiracy, headed by one 
Magnus, a consular, was discovered, the plan of which was 
to loose the farther end of the bridge when Maximin had 
passed over, and thus to leave him in the hands of the Ger- 
mans; and, meantime, Magnus was to be proclaimed em- 
peror. On this occasion, he massacred upwards of four 
thousand persons, without any form of trial whatever ; and 
he was accused of having invented the conspiracy with this 
design. 

A revolt of the Eastern archers,* which occurred a few 
days after, being quelled, Maximin led his army into Ger- 
many. As no large force opposed him, he wasted and 
burned the country through an extent of four hundred miles. 
Occasional skirmishes took place in the woods and marshes, 
which gave Maximin opportunities of displaying his personal 
prowess; and he caused pictures of his victories to be 
painted, which he sent to Rome, to be placed at the door of 
the senate-house. 

Maximin employed the two first years of his reign in wars 
against the Germans and the Sarmatians. His winter resi- 
dence was Sirmium in Pannonia, and he never conde« 
scended to visit Italy. But his absence was no benefit; for 
Italy, and all parts of the empire, groaned alike beneath his 
merciless tyranny. The vile race of delators once more 
came into life ; men of all ranks were dragged from every 
part of the empire to Pannonia, where some were sewed up 
in the skins of animals, others were exposed to wild beasts, 
others beaten to death with clubs, and the properties of all 
were confiscated. This had been the usual course of the 
preceding despotism, and the people in general, therefore, 
took little heed of it ; but Maximin stretched his rapacious 
hands to the corporate funds of the cities of the empire, 
which were destined to the support or the amusement of the 
people; and he seized on the treasures of the temples, and 
stripped the public edifices of their ornaments. The spirit 
of disaffection, thus excited, was general, and even his sol- 
diers were wearied of his severity and cruelty. 

* It was now the practice to have bodies of archers from the East in 
the Roman service. 

c c 



226 MAXiMiN. [a. d. 236. 

The whole empire was now, therefore, ripe for revolt ; the 
rapacity of the procurator of Africa caused it to break out 
in that province, (237.) This officer, who was worthy of 
his master, had condemned two young men of rank to pay 
such sums as would have quite ruined them. In despair, 
they assembled the peasantry on their estates, and, having 
gained over part of the soldiers, they one night surprised 
the procurator, and slew him and those who defended him. 
Knowing that they had no safety but in a general revolt, 
they resolved to offer the empire to M. Antonius Gordianus, 
the governor of the province, an illustrious senator, of the 
venerable age of eighty years. They came to him as he 
was resting, after giving audience in the morning, and, fling- 
ing the purple of a standard over him, saluted him Augus- 
tus. Gordian declined the proffered dignity ; but, when he 
reflected that Maximin would never pardon a man who had 
been proclaimed emperor, he deemed it the safer course to 
run the hazard of the contest, and he consented to accept 
the empire, making his son his colleague. He then pro- 
ceeded to Carthage, whence he wrote to the senate and peo- 
ple, and his friends at Rome, notifying his elevation to the 
empire. 

The intelligence was received with the greatest joy at 
Rome. The two Gordians were declared Augusti, and 
Maximin, and his son, whom he had associated with him in 
the empire, and their friends, public enemies, and rewards 
were promised to those who would kill them ; but the decree 
was ordered to be kept secret till all the necessary prepara- 
tions should have been made. Soon after, it was given out 
that Maximin was slain. The edicts of the Gordians were 
then published, their images and letters were carried into 
the prsetorian camp, and forthwith the people rose in fury, 
cast down and broke the images of Maximin, fell on and 
massacred his officers and the informers ; and many seized 
this pretext for getting rid of their creditors and their private 
enemies. Murder and pillage prevailed through the city. 
The senate, meantime, having advanced too far to recede, 
wrote a circular to all the governors of provinces, and ap- 
pointed twenty of their body to put Italy into a state of 
defence. 

Maximin was preparing to cross the Danube against the 
Sarmatians when he heard of what had taken place at Rome. 
His rage and fury passed all bounds. He menaced the 
whole of the senate with bonds or death, and promised their 



A. B. 237-238.] DEATH OF MAXIMIN. 227 

properties, and those of the Africans, to his soldiers ; but, 
finding that they did not show all the alacrity he had expect- 
ed, he began to fear for his power. His spirits, however, 
soon rose, when tidings came that his rivals were no more : 
for Capellianus, governor of Mauretania, being ordered by 
the Gordians to quit that province, marched against Car- 
thage at the head of a body of legionaries and Moors. The 
younger Gordian gave him battle, and was defeated and 
slain, and his father, on hearing the melancholy tidings, 
strangled himself Capellianus pillaged Carthage and the 
other towns, and exercised all the rights of a conqueror, 
(237.) 

When the fatal tidings reached Rome, the consternation 
was great ; but the senate, seeing they could not now re- 
cede, chose as emperors, in the place of the Gordians, M. 
Clodius Pupienus Maximus and D. Cselius Balbinus, the 
former to conduct the military, the latter the civil affairs of 
the state. To satisfy the people, a grandson of the elder 
Gordian, a boy of twelve years of age, was associated with 
them as a Caesar. 

The new emperors were elected about the beginning of 
July, and Pupienus forthwith left Rome to oppose Maximin. 
The remainder of the year was spent on both sides in making 
preparations for the war, and in the following spring (238) 
Maximin put his troops in motion for Italy. He passed the 
Alps unopposed, but found the gates of Aquileia closed 
against him. His offers of pardon being rejected, he laid 
siege to the town : it was defended with the obstinacy of 
despair. Ill success augmented the innate ferocity of Maxi- 
min ; he put to death several of his officers; these executions 
irritated the soldiers, who were besides suffering all kinds of 
privations, and discontent became general. As Maximin 
was reposing one day at noon in his tent, a party of the 
Alban soldiers* approached it with the intention of killing 
him. They were joined by his guards, and, when he awoke 
and came forth with his son, they would not listen to him, 
but killed them both on the spot, and cut off their heads. 
Maximin's principal ministers shared his fate. His reign 
had lasted only three years. 

* See above, p. 208. 



22B PUPIENUS, BALBINUS, GORDIAN. [a. D. 238. 



M. Clodius Pupienus Maximus, D. CcbKus Balbinus^ and 
M. Antonius Gordianus. 

A. u. 991—997. A. D. 238—244. 

The joy at Rome was extreme when the news of the death 
of Maximin arrived. Pupienus, who was at Ravenna, has- 
tened to Aquileia, and received the submission of the army. 
He distributed money to the legions, and then, sending them 
back to their usual quarters, returned to Rome with the 
praetorians and a part of the army of the Rhine, in which he 
could confide. He and his colleagues entered the city in a 
kind of triumph. 

The administration of Pupienus and Balbinus was of the 
best kind ; and the senate and people congratulated them- 
selves on the choice they had made. But the praetorians 
were far from being contented ; they felt as if robbed of 
their right of appointing an emperor ; and they were an- 
noyed at the German troops being retained in the city, as 
arguing a distrust of themselves. Unfortunately, too, there 
prevailed a secret jealousy between the two emperors, and it 
is probable that concord would not long have subsisted be- 
tween them under any circumstances. 

The praetorians, having to no purpose sought a pretext for 
getting rid of the emperors, at length took advantage of the 
celebration of the Capitoline games, at which almost every 
one was present, and the emperors remained nearly alone in 
the palace. They proceeded thither in fury. Pupienus, 
when aware of their approach, proposed to send for the 
Germans ; but Balbinus, fearing that it was meant to employ 
them ajjainst himself, refused his consent. Meantime the 
praetorians arrived, forced the entrance, seized the two aged 
emperors, tore their garments, treated them with every kind 
of indignity, and were dragging them to their camp, till, 
hearing that the Germans were coming to their aid, they 
killed them, and left their bodies lying in the street. They 
carried the young Gordian with them to their camp, where 
they proclaimed him emperor ; and the senate, the people, 
and the provinces, readily acquiesced in his elevation. 

The youthful emperor was the object of general affection ; 
the soldiers called him their child, the senate their son, the 
people their delight. He was of a lively and agreeable tem- 
per ; and he was zealous in the acquisition of knowledge, in 



A. D. 238-244.] MURDER OF GORDIAN. 229" 

order that he might not be deceived by those aboat him. In 
the first years, however, of his reign, public affairs were in- 
differently managed. His mother, who was not a Mamsea,, 
allowed her eunuchs and freedmen to sell all the great offices 
of the state, (perhaps she shared in their gains,) and in con- 
sequence many improper appointments were made. But 
the marriage of the young emperor (241) brought about a 
thorough reformation. He espoused the daughter of Misi- 
theus, a man distinguished in the cultivation of letters, and 
he made his father-in-law his praetorian prefect, and guided 
himself by his counsels. Misitheus, who was a man of virtue 
and talent as well as of learning, discharged the duties of his 
office in the ablest manner. 

A Persian war soon called the emperor to the East, (242.) 
Sapor, {Shahpoor,) the son and successor of Artaxerxes, had 
invaded Mesopotamia, taken Nisibis, Carrhee, and other 
towns, and menaced Antioch. But the able conduct of 
Misitheus, when the emperor arrived in Syria, speedily as- 
sured victory to the Roman arms ; the towns were all recov- 
ered, and the Persian monarch was obliged to repass the 
Tigris. Unfortunately for Gordian and the empire, Misi- 
theus died in the following year, (243,) to the great regret 
of the whole army, by whom he was both beloved and 
feared. The office of praetorian prefect was given to M. 
Julius Philippus, who is accused, though apparently without 
reason, of having caused the death of his predecessor. 
Now, however, having in effect the command of the army, 
Philip aspired to the empire. He spoke disparagingly of 
the youth of Gordian ; he contrived, by diverting the sup- 
plies, to cause the army to be in want, and then laid the 
blame on the emperor. At length, (244,) after a victory 
gained over the Persians on the banks of the Abora, he led 
the troops into a country where no provisions could be pro- 
cured ; a mutiny in consequence ensued, in which the em- 
peror was slain, and Philip was proclaimed in his place. 
Gordian was only nineteen years of age when he met his 
untimely fate ; he had reigned five years and eight months. 
The soldiers raised him a tomb on the spot, and the senate 
placed him among the gods. 

CONTIN. 20 



2BQ FHiLippus. [a. d. 244-249. 

M. Julius Philippus, 
A. u. 997—1002. A. D. 244— 249„ 

The adventurer who had now attained the imperial purple 
was an Arab by birth, and it is even pretended a Christian 
in religion. He probably entered the Roman service in his 
youth, and gradually rose to rank in the arrny. 

Being anxious to proceed to Rome, Philip lost no time in 
concluding a treaty with Sapor. He then, after a short stay 
at Antioch, set out for Italy, At Rome, he used every 
means to conciliate the senators by liberality and kindness ; 
and he never mentioned the late emperor but in terms of 
respect. To gain the affections of the people, he formed a 
reservoir to supply with water the part of the city beyond 
the Tiber. 

In the fifth year of his reign, (248,) Rome having then 
attained her one thousandth year, Philip, in conjunction 
with his son, now associated with him in the empire, cele- 
brated with great magnificence the secular games. These 
had been already solemnized by Augustus, by Claudius, 
by Domitian, and Severus, and Rome now witnessed them 
for the last time. 

Philip would appear to have acted. unwisely in committing 
extensive commands to his own relations ; for, in Syria, 
where his brother Priscus, and in Moesia, where his father- 
in-law, Severianus, commanded, rival emperors were pro- 
claimed. The Syrian rebel was named Jotapianus ; the 
Moesian was a centurion, named P. Carvilius Marinus. 
Philip, it is said, in alarm, called on the senate to support 
him, or to accept his resignation, (249 ;) but while the other 
senators maintained silence, Decius, a man of rank and 
talent, reassured him, speaking slightingly of the rebels, and 
asserting that they could not stand against him. His pre- 
diction proved correct; for they both were shortly after 
slain. Philip then obliged Decius, much, it is said, against 
his inclination, to take the command of the Mcesian and 
Pannonian legions. But when Decius reached the army, 
the soldiers insisted on investing him with the purple. He 
wrote to the emperor, assuring him of his fidelity ; but Philip 
would not trust to his declarations, and, leaving his son at 
Rome with a part of the prjetorians, he put himself at the 
head of his troops to chastise him. The armies met near 



A. D. 249-251.] GOTHIC WAR. 231 

Verona; Philip was defeated and slain, and when the news 
reached Rome, the praetorians slew his son and proclaimed 
Decius. 



C Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius. 
A.U. 1002—1004. A.D. 249—251. 

Decius was born at Bubalia, a town near Sirmium, in 
Pannonia, He was either forty-eight or fifty-eight years of 
age, it is uncertain which, when he was proclaimed empe- 
ror ; and, from the imperfect accounts which we have of his 
reign, he would seem to have been a man of considerable 
ability. His reign was, however, brief and unquiet. It had 
hardly commenced, when he had to go in person to quell an 
insurrection in Gaul, and all the rest of it was occupied in 
war with the Goths. 

This people, whose original seats seem to have been the 
Scandinavian peninsula, had at an early period crossed the 
Baltic, and settled on its southern coast. They had gradu- 
ally advanced southwards, and they now had reached the 
Euxine. In the time of Alexander Severus, they had made 
inroads into Dacia ; and in that of Philip, they ravaged both 
that province and Moesia. In the first year of Decius, (250,) 
the Gothic king Cniva passed the Danube at the head of 
70,000 warriors, and laid siege to the town of Eustesium, 
{Novi ;) being repelled by the Roman general Gallus, he 
advanced against Nicopolis, whence he was driven by the 
emperor or his son, (it is uncertain which,) with a loss of 
30,000 men. Undismayed by his reverses, he crossed Mount 
Haemus, in the hope of surprising Philippopolis ; Decius fol- 
lowed him, but his camp at Beraea was surprised by the 
Goths, and his troops were cut to pieces. Philippopolis 
stood a siege of some duration ; but it was taken, and the 
greater part of its inhabitants were massacred. The Goths 
now spread their ravages into Macedonia, the governor of 
which, Philip's brother Priscus, assumed the purple under 
their protection. 

It seems most probable that it was the younger Decius 
who met with these reverses, for the emperor must have 
been at Rome, as we find that, on his leaving it, (251,) to 
direct the Gothic war, a person named Julius Valens was 
declared emperor, to the great joy of the people. He was. 



232 GALLUs. [a. d. 252. 

however, killed shortly after. Decius, who was worthy of 
empire, was, meantime, amidst the cares of war, engaged in 
the visionary project of restoring the long-departed public 
virtue which had once ennobled Rome. With this view he 
proposed to revive the office of censor ; and, the choice of 
the person being left to the senate, they unanimously voted 
it (Oct. 27) to P. Licinius Valerianus, as being the man 
most worthy of it. The decree was transmitted to the em- 
peror, who was in Thrace; he read it aloud in a large 
assembly, and exhorted Valerian, who was present, to accept 
the proffered dignity. Valerian would fain excuse himself. 
We know not if the emperor was satisfied with his excuses, 
but, from the turn which public affairs took, the censorship 
was never exercised. 

Decius was successful against the Goths, who offered to 
surrender their booty and prisoners if allowed to repass the 
Danube ; but the emperor, who was resolved to strike such 
a blow as would daunt the barbarians, and make them 
henceforth respect the Roman arms, refused all terms. 
The Goths, therefore, gave him battle in a place where a 
part of their front was covered by a morass. The younger 
Decius was slain by an arrow in the beginning of the action ; 
but the emperor, crying out that the loss of one soldier did 
not signify, led on his troops. In the attempt to cross the 
morass, they were pierced by the arrows of the enemy, or 
swallowed up in the mire, and the body of the emperor was 
never found. 



C. Vihrus Trehonianus Gallus. 

A.u. 1005—1006. A.D. 252—253. 

The senate, it is said, but more probably the army, con- 
ferred the vacant purple on Gallus, the governor of Moesia. 
He adopted Hostilianus, the remaining son of Decius, and 
gave him the title of Augustus ; but this youth dying soon 
after of the plague, Gallus associated his own son Volusia- 
nus in the empire. Unable, probably, to resist the victorious 
Goths, Gallus agreed that they should depart with their 
booty and prisoners, and even consented to pay them annu- 
ally a large sum of gold. He then set out for Rome, where 
he remained for the rest of his reign, ruling with great mild- 
ness and equity. 



A.B. 253.] CHILIAN, &1C. 233 

The Goths and their allies, heedless of treaties, again 
(253) poured over the Danube; but JEmilianus, the gov- 
ernor of Mcesia, gave them a signal defeat, and his victo- 
rious troops forthwith proclaimed him emperor. Without a 
moment's delay, he put them in motion for Rome. Gallus 
advanced to engage him ; the troops came in sight of each 
other at Interamna, {Terni,) and those of Gallus, seeing 
themselves the weaker, and gained by the promises of ^mil- 
ianus, murdered the emperor and his son, and passed over 
to the side of the rebel. 



C Julius ^milianus. 



^milianus is said to have been a Moor by birth. Of his 
previous history nothing is known. He wrote to the senate, 
to say that they should have the whole civil administration, 
and that he would be no more than their general ;- and that 
assembly readily acquiesced in his elevation. 

But Valerian had been sent by Gallus to fetch the legions 
of Gaul and Germany to his aid ; and these troops, as soon 
as they heard of his death, proclaimed their general emperor. 
He led them into Italy ; and the troops of JEmilianus, which 
were encamped at Spoleto, fearing the strength and number 
of the advancing army, murdered their emperor to obviate 
a conflict. The reign of iEmilianus had not lasted four 
months. 



P. Licinius Valerianus and P. Licinius Gallienus. 
A. u. 1006—1013. A. D. 253—260. 

Valerian is said to have been sixty years of age when thus 
raised to the empire. Feeling the infirmities of age, or in 
imitation of the practice of so many preceding emperors, he 
associated with him his son Gallienus, a young man devoid 
neither of courage nor ability, but immoderately addicted 
to pleasure. 

Had the Roman empire been in the condition in which it 
was left by Augustus, Valerian might have emulated that 
emperor, and have displayed his virtues and beneficence in 
promoting the happiness of his subjects. But a sreat change 

20* DD 



234 VALERIAN AND GALLIENUS. [a. D. 253. 

had taken place in the condition of Rome; her legions no 
longer inspired their ancient terror ; her northern and east- 
ern provinces were exposed to the ravages of those who had 
formerly cowered before her eagles. Valerian could there- 
fore only exhibit his wisdom in the selection of his generals ; 
and it is to be observed that his choice never fell on an un- 
worthy subject. 

The enemies by whom the empire was assailed at this 
period, were the Franks, the Aleraans, the Goths, and the 
Persians. As the scanty notices of these times do not enable 
us to arrange events chronologically, we will give a separate 
view of the wars, with each of these peoples, during the 
reigns of Valerian and his son. 

We have already observed the proneness of the German 
tribes to form confederations. The Chaucans, Cheruscans, 
Chattans, and some adjoining states, had lately, it would 
seem, entered into one of these political unions, under the 
name of Franks, i. e. Freemen. Their strength and number 
now causing uneasiness for Gaul, the young emperor, Gallie- 
nus, was sent to that country ; but the chief military com- 
mand was conferred on Postumius, a man of considerable 
ability. The arms of the legions were successful in various 
encounters ; but they were finally unable to prevent the pas- 
sage of an army of the Franks through Gaul, whence, sur- 
mounting the barrier of the Pyrenees, they poured down into 
the now unwarlike Spain. The rich city of Tarragona was 
taken and sacked ; the whole country was devastated, and 
the Franks, then seizing the vessels which they found in the 
ports, embarked to ravage Africa. We know not what was 
their ultimate fate ; they were probably, however, destroyed 
in detail by the Roman troops and the provincials. 

A portion of the great Suevian confederation had formed 
a new combination, under the name of Alemans, i. e. All- 
men, on account of the variety of tribes which composed it. 
Like the Suevians, their forces were chiefly composed of 
cavalry, with active footmen mingled with them ; * and they 
always proved a formidable foe. While Gallienus was in 
Gaul, a body of them entered Italy, penetrated as far as Ra- 
venna, and their advanced troops came nearly within sight 
of Rome. ^The senate drew out the praetorian guards, and 
added to them a portion of the populace to oppose them ; 
and the barbarians, finding themselves greatly outnumbered, 

* The Hamippi of the Greeks. See Plist. of Greece, p. 219. 



A. D. 258-262.] GOTHIC INVASIONS. 235 

hastened to get beyond the Danube with their plunder. 
Gallienus, it is said, was so much alarmed at the spirit and 
energy shown by the senate on this occasion, that he issued 
an edict interdicting all military employments to the sena- 
tors, and even prohibiting their access to the camps of the 
legions. It is added that the luxurious nobles viewed this 
indignity as a favor rather than an insult. 

Gallienus is also said to have overcome a large army of 
Alemans in the vicinity of Milan.* He afterwards espoused 
Pipa, daughter of the king of the Marconi ans, (one of the 
confederates,) to whom he gave a territory in Pannonia, as a 
means of averting the hostilities of the barbarians. 

The Goths were now masters of the northern coast of the 
Euxine ; and, finding their attacks on the northern provinces 
generally repelled with vigor, they resolved to direct their 
efforts against more unwarlike districts. Collecting a quan- 
tity of the vessels used for navigating the Euxine, they em- 
barked (258) and crossed that sea. They made their first 
attempt on the frontier town of Pityus, which was long ably 
defended against them ; but they at length succeeded in 
reducing it. They thence sailed to the wealthy city of 
Trebizond, ( Trapezus ;) and, though it was defended by a 
numerous garrison, they effected an entrance during the 
night. The cowardly garrison fled without making any re- 
sistance ; the inhabitants were massacred in great numbers; 
the booty and captives were immense, and the victors, having 
ravaged the province of Pontus, embarked there on board 
of the ships which they found in the harbors, and returned 
to their settlement in the Tauric Chersonese. 

The next expedition of the Goths was directed to the 
Bosporus, (261.) They took and plundered Chalcedon and 
Nicomedia, Nicaea, Apamaea, Prusa, and other cities of Bi- 
thynia. The accidental swelling of the little river Rhynda- 
cus saved the town of Cyzicus from pillage. 

The third expedition of the Goths was on a larger scale, 
(262.) Their fleet consisted of five hundred vessels of all 
sizes. They sailed along the Bosporus and Propontis ; took 
and plundered Cyzicus ; passed the Hellespont, and entered 
the ^gean. They directed their course to the Pirgeeus; 
Athens could offer no resistance ; the Goths ravaged Greece 
with impunity, and advanced to the shores of the Adriatic. 
Gallienus roused himself from his pleasures, and appeared in 

* Zonaras, xii. He says the Alemans were 300,000, the Romans 
only 10,000 strong. 



236 VALERIAN AND GALLIENUS. [a.D. 259-260. 

arms. A Ilerulan chief with his men was induced to enter 
the Roman service ; the Goths, weakened by this defection, 
broke up; a part forced their way to the Danube over land; 
the rest embarked, and, pillaging and burning the temple of 
Diana at Ephesus on their way, returned to the Euxine. 

Sapor, of Persia, had been long engaged in war with 
Chosroes, king of Armenia, a prince of the house of Arsa- 
ces. Unable to reduce the brave Armenian, he caused him 
to be assassinated ; and Armenia then received the Persian 
yoke. Elated with his success, Sapor invaded the Roman ter- 
ritory, took Nisibis and Carrhae, and spread his ravages over 
Mesopotamia. Valerian, alarmed for the safety of the East- 
ern provinces, proceeded thither in person, (259.) The 
events of the war which ensued have not reached us. All 
that we know with certainty is, that Valerian was finally de- 
feated and made a captive, (200.) The circumstances of his 
capture were somewhat similar to those of the taking of 
Crassus. His army, by ignorance or treachery, got into a 
position where neither discipline nor courage could avail, 
being without supplies and suffering from disease. The sol- 
diers clamored for a capitulation ; Sapor detained the depu- 
ties that were sent to him, and led his troops up to the camp ; 
and Valerian was obliged to consent to a conference, at 
which he was made a prisoner. 

Valerian ended his days a captive in Persia. We are told 
that Sapor treated him with every kind of indignity ; that 
he led him about in chains clad in his imperial purple ; that, 
when the haughty Persian would mount his horse, the cap- 
tive emperor was made to go on his hands and knees to 
serve as his horse-block; and that, when death at length 
released him from his sufferings, his skin was stripped off, 
tanned, and stuffed, and placed in one of the most celebrated 
temples of Persia. The sufferings of Valerian are, however, 
probably of the same kind with the tortures of Regulus and 
the iron cage of Bajazet — gross exaggerations of some degree 
of ill treatment or of necessary precaution. 



P. Licinius GalUenus. 

a. u. 1013—1021. A. D. 260—268. 

The captivity of Valerian was lamented by all but his son, 
who felt himself relieved by it from the restraint imposed on 



A. D. 260.] THE THIRTY TYRANTS. 237 

him by his father's virtue. He even affected to act the phi- 
losopher on the occasion, saying, in imitation of Xenophon, 
" I knew that my father was mortal ; " but he never made 
any attempt to procure his liberty, and he abandoned him- 
self without restraint to sensual indulgence. 

The reign of Gallienus is termed the Time of the Thirty 
Tyrants. This word seems to have recovered its ancient 
Grecian sense, and to have merely signified prince, or rather 
usurper, that is, one who claims the supreme power already 
held by another. The tyrants of this time were, in general, 
men of excellent character, who had been placed in the com- 
mand of armies by Valerian, and were invested with the pur- 
ple by their soldiers, often against their will. The number 
of these usurpers, who rose and fell in succession, did not 
exceed eighteen or nineteen; but some very fanciful analogy 
led to a comparison of them with the Thirty of Athens, and 
in the Augustan History an effort is made, by including 
women and children, to raise them to that number. 

The East, Illyricum, Gaul, Greece, and Egypt, were the 
places in which these tyrants appeared. We will notice 
them in order. n 

After the defeat of Valerian, Sapor conferred the title of 
emperor on a person named Cyriades, the son of a citizen 
of Antioch. This vassal forthwith conducted the Persian 
troops to the pillage of his native city; and so rapid and so 
secret was their march, that they surprised the Antiochenes 
while engaged at the theatre. The massacre and devasta- 
tion usual in the East ensued. The Persian monarch then 
poured his troops into Cilicia, took and plundered Tarsus 
and other towns ; then, crossing Mount Taurus, he laid siege 
to Caesarea in Cappadocia, a city with 400,000 inhabitants. 
It was stoutly defended for some time ; but treachery at length 
delivered it into the hands of the Persians, and massacre and 
pillage followed. Sapor now spread his ravages on all sides; 
but the Roman troops, having rallied under the command 
of Ser. Anicius Ballista, who had been praetorian prefect, 
checked his career, and, as he was retiring towards his own 
states, he found himself assailed by an unexpected enemy. 

Soon after the defeat and capture of Valerian, a train of 
camels laden with presents entered the camp of Sapor. 
They were accompanied by a letter from Odenatus, a 
wealthy citizen of Palmyra, (the ancient Tadmor,) contain- 
ing an assurance that he had never acted against the Per- 
sians. Sapor, enraged at such insolence, (as he deemed it,) 



238 GALLIENUS. [a. D. 261-264. 

tore the letter, flung the gifts into the river, and declared 
that he would exterminate the insolent writer and his family, 
unless he came before his throne with his hands bound behind 
his back. Odenatus at once resolved to join the Romans ; 
he collected a force chiefly composed of the Bedoweens, or 
Arabs of the Desert, over whom he had great influence. 
He hovered about the Persian army, and, attacking it at the 
passage of the Euphrates, carried off* much treasure, and 
some of the women of the Great King, who was forced to 
seek safety in a precipitate retreat. Odenatus made himself 
master of all Mesopotamia ; and he even passed the Tigris, 
and made an attempt on Ctesiphon, (261.) Gallienus gave 
him the title of his general of the East, and Odenatus him- 
self took soon after that of king of Palmyra. 

The Roman troops in the East, meantime, being resolved 
not to submit to Gallienus, were deliberating on whom they 
would bestow the purple. Acting under the advice of Bal- 
lista, they fixed on the prsetorian prefect, M. Fulvius Macria- 
nus, a man of great military talents, and, what was perhaps 
of more importance in their eyes, extremely wealthy. Macria- 
nus conferred the office of prastorian prefect on Ballista, and, 
leaving with him his younger son and a part of the army to 
defend the East, he put himself at the head of 45,000 men, 
and, taking with him his elder son, set out for Europe, (262.) 
On the borders of Illyricum he was encountered by M'. Acil- 
ius Aureolus, the governor (or, as some say, the tyrant) of 
that province ; and in the battle which ensued, himself and 
his son were slain, and his troops surrendered. After the 
death of Macrianus, Ballista assumed the purple ; but he was 
slain by order Of Odenatus, whom Gallienus, (264,) with the 
full consent of the senate and people of Rome, had made 
his associate in the empire, giving him the titles of Caesar, 
Augustus, and all the other tokens of sovereignty. 

Tib. Cestius ^milianus, who commanded in Egypt, as- 
sumed the purple in that province, (262,) in consequence, it 
is said, of a sedition in the most turbulent city of Alexan- 
dria; but he was defeated the following year, taken prisoner, 
and sent to Gallienus, who caused him to be strangled. 

It was in Gaul that the usurpers had most success. As 
soon as Gallienus left that country, (260,) the general M. 
Cassius Latienus Postumus was proclaimed emperor ; and his 
authority appears to have been acknowledged in both Spain 
and Britain. He is described as a man of most noble and 
upright character; he administered justice impartially, and 



A. D. 267.] THE THIRTY TYRANTS. 239 

be defended the frontier against the Germans with valor and 
success. Possessed of the affections of the people, he easily 
maintained himself against ail the efforts of Gallienus ; but 
he was slain at last, (267,) in a mutiny of his own soldiers, 
to whom he had refused the plunder of the city of Mentz, in 
which a rival emperor had appeared. Postumus had associ- 
ated with himself in the empire Victorinus, the son of a 
lady named Aurelia Victoria, who was called the Mother of 
the Camp, and who had such influence with the troops, (we 
know not how acquired, but probably by her wealth,) as to be 
able to give the purple to whom she pleased. Victorinus 
being slain by a man whose wife he had violated, a simple 
armorer, named Marius, wore the purple for two days, at 
the end of which he was murdered ; and Victoria then caused 
a senator named P. Pivesus Tetricus to be proclaimed em- 
peror, who maintained his power for some years. 

At the time when Macrianus claimed the empire, P. Vale- 
rius Valens, the governor of Greece, finding that that usurper, 
who was resolved on his destruction, had sent L. Calpurnius 
Piso against him, assumed the purple in his own defence. 
Piso, being forced to retire into Thessaly, caused himself to 
be proclaimed emperor there ; but few joined him, and he 
was slain by a party of soldiers sent against him by Valens, 
who was himself shortly after put to death by his own 
troops. Both Valens and Piso were men of high character ; 
especially the latter, to whom the senate decreed divine 
honors, and respecting whom Valens himself said that "he 
would not be able to account to the gods below, for having 
ordered Piso, though his enemy, to be slain ; a man whose 
like the Roman republic did not then possess." 

C. Annius Trebellianus declared himself independent in 
Isauria, and T. Cornelius Celsus was proclaimed emperor in 
Africa; but both speedily perished, (265.) Among the ca- 
lamities of this reign was an insurrection of the slaves in 
Sicily, similar to those in the time of the republic. 

While his empire was thus torn asunder, Gallienus thought 
only of indulgence, and the loss of a province only gave him 
occasion for a joke. When Egypt revolted, " Well," said 
he, "cannot we do without Egyptian linen?" So, when 
Gaul was lost, he asked if the republic could not be secure 
without cloaks from Arras. He was content to retain Italy, 
satisfied with a nominal sovereignty over the rest of the em- 
pire ; and, whenever this seat of dominion was menaced, he 
exhibited in its defence the vigor and personal courage 
which he really possessed. 



240 GALLIENUS. [a. D. 268. 

Gaul and Illyricum were the quarters from which Italy had 
most to apprehend : Gallienus therefore headed his troops 
against Postumus; and, when D. Lselius Ingenuus revolted, 
in Pannonia, he marched against him, defeated and slew him, 
and made the most cruel use of his victory, to deter others, 
(260.) Q,. Nonius Regillianus, who afterwards revolted in 
the same country, was slain by his own soldiers, (263;) but, 
when Aureolus was induced to assume the purple, (268,) the 
Illyrian legions advanced, and made themselves masters of 
Milan. Gallienus, shaking off sloth, quickly appeared at the 
head of his troops. The hostile armies encountered on the 
banks of the Adda, and Aureolus was defeated, wounded, and 
forced to shut himself up in Milan. During the siege, a con- 
spiracy was formed against the emperor, by som.e of the prin- 
cipal officers of his army ; and one night, as he was sitting at 
table, a report was spread that Aureolus had made a sally. 
Gallienus instantly threw himself on horseback, to hasten to 
the point of danger, and, in the dark, he received a mortal 
wound from an unknown hand. 



CHAPTER VI.* 



CLAUDIUS, AURELIAN, TACITUS, PROBUS, 
CARUS, CARINUS, AND NUMERIAN. 

A. u. 1021—1038. A. D. 268—285. 

CLAUDIUS. INVASIONS OF THE GOTHS. AURELIAN. ALE- 
MANIC WAR. WAR AGAINST ZENOBIA TETRICUS. 

DEATH OF AURELIAN. TACITUS. HIS DEATH. PRO- 
BUS. HIS MILITARY SUCCESSES. HIS DEATH. CARUS. 

PERSIAN WAR. HIS DEATH. DEATH OF NUMERIAN. 

ELECTION OF DIOCLETIAN. BATTLE OF MARGUS. 

We now enter on a series of emperors of a new order. 
Born nearly all in humble stations, and natives of the province 
of Illyricum, they rose, by merit, through the gradations of 
military service, attained the empire, in general, without crime, 
maintained its dignity, and checked or punished the inroads 

* Authorities : Zosimus, the Augustan History, and Epitomators. 



A. D. 268.] CHARACTER OF CLAUDIUS. 241 

of the barbarians. This series commences with the death 
of Gallienus, and terminates with that of Licinius, embra- 
cing a period of somewhat more than half a century, and 
marked, as we shall find, by most important changes in the 
Roman empire. 



M. Aurelius Claudius. 
A. u. 1021—1023. A. D. 268—270. 

The murmurs of the soldiers, on the death of Gallienus, 
were easily stilled by the promise of a donative of twenty 
pieces of gold a man. To justify themselves in the eyes of 
the world, the conspirators resolved to bestow the empire on 
one who should form an advantageous contrast to its late 
unworthy possessor ; and they fixed on M. Aurelius Claudius, 
who commanded a division of the army at Pavia. The sol- 
diers, the senate, and the people, alike approved their choice ; 
and Claudius assumed the purple with universal approbation. 

This excellent man, in whose praise writers of all parties 
are agreed, was a native of Illyricum, born, apparently, in 
humble circumstances. His merit raised him through the 
inferior gradations of the army ; he attracted the notice of 
the emperor Decius, and the discerning Valerian made him 
general* of the Illyrian frontier, with an assurance of the 
consulate. 

Aureolus was soon obliged to surrender, and he was put 
to death by the soldiers. An army of Alemans, coming per- 
haps to his aid, was then, it is said, defeated by Claudius, 
near Verona. After his victory, the emperor proceeded to 
Rome, where, during the remainder of the year, he devoted 
his time and thoughts to the reformation of abuses in the 
state. Among other just and prudent regulations, he directed 
that the properties confiscated by Gallienus should be restored 
to their original owners A woman, it is said, came, on this 
occasion, to the emperor, and claimed her land, which, she 
said, had been given to Claudius, the commander of the cav- 
alry. This officer was the emperor himself; and he replied, 
that the emperor Claudius must restore what he took when 
he was a private man, and less bound to obey the laws.t 

The following year, (269,) the Goths and their allies em- 

* The term now in use for general was dux, whence our duke. 
t Zonaras, p. 239. 

CONTIN. 21 E E 



242 CLAUDIUS. [a. d. 269-270. 

barked, we are told, to the number of 320,000 warriors, with 
their wives, children, and slaves, in two, or, as some say, six 
thousand vessels, and directed their course to the Bosporus. 
tn passing that narrow channel, the number of their vessels 
and the rapidity of the current caused them to suifer consider- 
able loss. Their attempts on Byzantium and Cyzicus having 
failed, they proceeded along the northern coast of the ^gean, 
and laid siege to the cities of Cassandria and Thessalonica. 
While thus engaged, they learned that the emperor was on 
his march to oppose them ; and, breaking up, they advanced 
into the interior, wasting and plundering the country on their 
way. Near the town of Naissus, in Dardania, they encoun- 
tered the Roman legions. The battle was long and bloody, 
and the Romans were, at one time, on the verge of defeat; 
but the skill of Claudius turned the beam, and the Goths 
were finally routed, with a loss of 50,000 men. During the 
remainder of the year, numerous desultory actions occurred,, 
in which the Goths sustained great losses ; and, being finally 
hemmed in on all sides by the Roman troops, they were forced 
to seek refuge in Mount Hsemus, and pass the winter amidst 
its snows. Famine and pestilence alike preyed on them ; and 
when, on the return of spring, (270,) the emperor took the 
fiield against them, they were obliged to surrender at discre- 
tion. A portion of their youth were enroHfed in the imperial 
troops ; vast numbers both of men and women were reduced 
to slavery; on some, lands were bestowed in the provinces ; 
few returned to their seats on the Euxine. 

The pestilence which had afflicted the Goths proved also 
fatal to the emperor. He was attacked and carried off by it 
at Sirmium, in the 57th year of his age. In the presence of 
his principal oflficers, he named, it is said, Aurelian, one of 
his generals, as the fittest person to succeed him ; but his 
brother Quintilius, when he heard of his death, assumed the 
purple at Aquiieia, and was acknowledged by the senate. 
Hearing, however, that Aurelian was on his march against 
him, he gave up all hopes of success, and, opening his veins, 
died, after a reign of seventeen days. 



L. Domitius Aurelianus. 

A. u. 1023—1028. A. D. 270—275. 

Aurelian, like his able predecessor, was a man of humble 
birth. His father is said to have been a small farmer, and 



A. D. 270,] AURELIAN. 243 

his mother a priestess of the Sun, in a village near Sirmium. 
He entered the army as a common soldier, and rose through 
the successive gradations of the service to the rank of gen- 
eral of a frontier. He was adopted in the presence of Va- 
lerian, (some said at his request,) by Ulpius Crinitus, a sena- 
tor of the same family with the emperor Trajan, who gave 
him his daughter in marriage, and Valerian bestowed on 
him the office of consul. In the Gothic war, Claudius had 
committed to him the command of the cavalry. 

Immediately on his election, Aurelian hastened to Rome, 
whence he was speedily recalled to Pannonia by the intelli- 
gence of an irruption of the Goths. A great battle was 
fought, which was terminated by night without any decisive 
advantage on either side. Next day the Goths retired over 
the river, and sent proposals of peace, which was cheerfully 
accorded ; and for many years no hostilities of any account 
occurred between the Goths and Romans. But while Aure- 
lian was thus occupied in Pannonia, the Alemans, with a 
force of 40,000 horse and 80,000 foot, had passed the Alps 
and spread their ravages to the Po. Instead of following 
them into Italy, Aurelian, learning that they were on their 
return home with their booty, marched along the Danube 
to intercept their retreat, and, attacking them unawares, he 
reduced them to such straits that they sent to sue for peace. 
The emperor received the envoys at the head of his legions, 
surrounded by his principal officers. After a silence of some 
moments, they spoke by their interpreter, saying that it was 
the desire of peace, and not the fear of war, that had brought 
them thither. They spoke of the uncertainty of war, and 
enlarged on the number of their forces. As a condition of 
peace, they required the, usual presents, and the same annual 
payments in silver and gold that they had had before the war. 
Aurelian replied in a long speech, the sum of which was that 
nothing short of unconditional surrender would be accepted. 
The envoys, returning to their countrymen, reported the ill 
success of their embassy; and forthwith the army turned 
back and reentered Italy. Au^^elian followed, and came up 
with them at Placentia. The Alemans, who had stationed 
themselves in the woods, fell suddenly on the legions in the 
dusk of the evening; and nothing but the firmness and skill 
of the emperor saved the Romans from a total overthrow. 
A second battle was fought near Fano in Umbria, on the 
spot where Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal was defeated and 
slain, five hundred years before. The Alemans were totally 



244 AURELIAN. [a. D. 271. 

routed, and a concluding victory at Pavia delivered Italy 
from their ravages. Aurelian pursued the barbarians beyond 
the Alps, and then turned to Pannonia, vi^hich the Vandals 
had invaded. He engaged and defeated them, (271.) They 
sent to sue for peace, and he referred the matter to his 
soldiers, who loudly expressed their desire for an accommo- 
dation. The Vandals gave the children of their two kings 
and of their principal nobles for hostages, and Aurelian took 
two thousand of them into his service. 

There had been some seditions at Rome during the time 
of the Alemanic war, and Aurelian, on his return to the 
capital, acted with great severity, and even cruelty, in pun- 
ishing those engaged in them. He is accused of having put 
to death senators of high rank, on the slightest evidence, and 
for the most trifling offences. Aware, too, that neither Alps 
nor Apennines could now check the barbarians, he resolved 
to put Rome into a posture to stand a siege ; and he com- 
menced the erection of massive walls around it, which, 
when completed by his successors, formed a circuit of twen- 
ty-one miles, and yielded a striking proof of the declining 
strength of the empire. 

Aurelian, victorious against the barbarians, had still two 
rivals to subdue before he could be regarded as perfect mas- 
ter of the empire. Tetricus was acknowledged in Gaul, 
Spain, and Britain ; Zenobia, the widow of Odenatus, ruled 
the East. It is uncertain against which he first turned his 
arms ; but, as the greater number of writers give the priority 
to the Syrian war, we will here follow their example. 

Odenatus and his eldest son, Herod, were treacherously 
slain by his nephew Mssonius; but Zenobia, the widow of 
the murdered prince, speedily punished the traitor, and then 
held the government in the name of her remaining sons. 
This extraordinary woman claimed a descent from the Ptole- 
mies of Egypt. In her person she displayed the beauty of 
the East, being of a clear dark complexion, with pearly white 
teeth and brilliant black eyes. Her voice was strong and 
harmonious ; she spoke the Greek, Syrian, and Egyptian 
languages, and understood the Latin. She was fond of 
study, but at the same time she loved vigorous exercises; 
and she accompanied her husband to the chase of the lion, 
the panther, and the other wild beasts of the wood and 
desert, and by her counsels and her vigor of mind, she greatly 
contribut-ed to his success in war. To these manly qualities 
was united a chastity rarely to be found in the East. View- 



A. D. 271.] ZENOBIA. 245 

ing:the union of the sexes as the appointed means of con- 
tinuing the species, Zenobia would admit the embraces of 
her husband only in order to have offspring. She was tem- 
perate and sober, yet, when needful, she could qaaff wine 
with her generals, and even vanquish in the combats of the 
table the wine-loving Persians and Armenians. As a sove- 
reign, Zenobia was severe or clement, as the occasion re- 
quired ; she was frugal of her treasure beyond what was 
ordinary with a woman, but when her affairs called for lib- 
erality, no one dispensed them more freely. 

After the death of Odenatus, Zenobia styled her three sons 
Augusti ; but she held the government in her own hands : 
she bore the title of Queen of the East, wore royal robes 
and the diadem, caused herself to be adored in the Oriental 
fashion, and put the years of her reign on her coins. She 
defeated an army sent against her by Gallienus ; she made 
herself mistress of Egypt, and her rule extended northwards 
as far as the confines of Bithynia. 

Aurelian, on passing over to Asia, reduced to order the 
province of Bithynia. The city of Tyana in Cappadocia 
resisted him ; but the treachery of one of its inhabitants put 
it into his hands. He pardoned the people, and he aban- 
doned the traitor to the just indignation of the soldiers. On 
the banks of the Orontes, he encountered the troops of the 
Ctueen of the East. A cavalry action ensued, and, the Pal- 
myrenians being greatly superior in that arm, Aurelian em- 
ployed the stratagem of making his cavalry feign a flight, 
and then turn and attack the pursuing enemies, when wea- 
ried and exhausted with the weight of their heavy armor. 
The defeated Palmyrenians retired to Antioch, which they 
quitted in the night, and next day it opened its gates to Au- 
relian. He advanced then, with little opposition, to Emesa, 
where he found the Palmyrenian army, 70,000 strong, en- 
camped in the plain before the city, Zenobia herself was 
present, but the command was intrusted to her general, 
Zabdas. In the engagement, the Roman horse, unable to 
withstand the ponderous charge of the steel-clad Palmyre- 
nians, turned and fled. While the Palmyrenian cavalry was 
engaged in the pursuit, their light infantry, being left un- 
protected, offered little resistance to the legions, and a total 
rout ensued. Zenobia, seeing the battle lost, and knowing 
that the people of Emesa favored the Romans, abandoned 
that city, and retired and shut herself up in Palmyra, her 
capital. 

21* 



246 AURELIAN. , [a.d. 272. 

The city of Tadmor, or Palmyra, as it was named by the 
Greeks, seems to have been, from the earliest times, a place 
of importance in the trade between the Persian Gulf and the 
Mediterranean Sea, being situated in an oasis of the desert, 
abounding in herbage, trees, and springs, and lying within 
sixty miles of the Euphrates, and somewhat more than three 
times that distance of the coast of Syria. Solomon, king of 
Israel, had made himself master of this important post, and 
fortified it. Its advantages being the gift of nature, and not 
of man, it continued to flourish under all the surrounding 
vicissitudes of empire. In the time of Trajan, it became a 
Roman colony, and it was adorned with those stately pub- 
lic edifices whose ruins command the admiration of modern 
Europe. 

In their march over the desert, the Roman troops were 
harassed by the attacks of the Bedoween Arabs. They 
found the city of Palmyra strongly fortified, and abundantly 
supplied with the means of defence. When the siege had 
lasted for some time, Aurelian wrote, offering advantageous 
terms to the queen and the people ; but, fully convinced that 
famine would soon prey on the Roman army, and that 
the Persians and Arabs would hasten to her relief, Zenobia 
returned a haughty and insulting reply. The expected suc- 
cors, however, did not arrive ; convoys of provisions entered 
the Roman camp ; and Probus, whom Aurelian had de- 
tached for the reduction of Egypt, having accomplished his 
commission, brought his troops to join the main army. 
Want began to be felt within the walls of Palmyra; and Ze- 
nobia, finding that the city must surrender, resolved to fly to 
the Persians, and seek by their aid to continue the war. 
Mounting one of her fleetest dromedaries, she left the city, 
and had reached the Euphrates, and even entered the boat 
which was to convey her across, when the party of light 
horse sent in pursuit, came up and seized her. When 
brought before the emperor, and demanded why she had 
dared to insult the emperors of Rome, she replied, that she 
regarded him as such, as he had conquered ; but that she 
never could esteem Gallienus, Aureolus, and such persons, 
to be emperors. This prudent answer won her favor, and 
Aurelian treated her with respect. The city soon surren- 
dered, and the emperor led his army back to Emesa, where 
he set up his tribunal, and had Zenobia and her ministers 
and friends brought to trial. The soldiers were clamorous 
for the death of the queen, but the emperor was resolved to 



A. D. 272.] TETRICUS. 247 

reserve her to grace his triumph ; and it is added, that she 
belied the greatness of her character by weakly throwing all 
the blame on her ministers. Of these, several were executed, 
among whom was the celebrated Longinus, the queen's 
secretary. He died with the equanimity of a philosopher, 
comforting his companions in misfortune. 

Aurelian had passed the Bosporus on his return to Rome, 
when intelligence reached him that the Palmyrenians had 
risen on and massacred the small garrison he had left in 
their city. He instantly retraced his steps, arrived at Anti- 
och before it was known that he had set out, hastened to 
Palmyra, took the city, and massacred men, women, and 
children, citizens and peasants, without distinction. As he 
was on his way back to Europe, news came that Egypt had 
revolted, and made a wealthy merchant, named Firmus, em- 
peror, and that the export of corn to Rome had been stopped. 
The indefatigable Aurelian soon appeared on the banks of 
the Nile, defeated the usurper, and took and put him to 
death. 

The overthrow of Tetricus (whether it preceded or fol- 
lowed these events) left Aurelian without a rival. Tetricus, 
it is said, was so wearied with the state of thraldom in which 
he was held by his mutinous troops, that he secretly wrote 
to Aurelian to come to his deliverance. When the emperor 
entered Gaul, Tetricus found it necessary to affect the alac-" 
rity of one determined to conquer or die ; but, when the ar- 
mies encountered on the plains of Chalons, he betrayed his 
troops, and deserted in the very commencement of the bat- 
tle. His legions fought, notwithstanding, with desperation, 
and perished nearly to a man. 

Victorious over all his rivals, and all the enemies of 
Rome, Aurelian celebrated a triumph with unusual magnifi- 
cence. Wild beasts of various kinds, troops of gladiators, 
and bands of captives of many nations, opened the proces- 
sion. Tetricus and his son walked, clad in the Gallic habit; 
Zenobia also moved on foot, covered with jewels and bound 
with golden chains, which were borne up by slaves. The 
splendid cars of Odenatus and Zenobia, and one the gift of 
the Persian king to the emperor, preceded the chariot drawn 
by four stags, once the car of a Gothic king, in which Au- 
relian himself rode. The senate, the people, the army, 
horse and foot, succeeded ; and it was late in the day when 
the monarch reached the Capitol. 

The view of a Roman senator led in triumph, in the per- 



248 AURELIAN. [a. d. 275. 

son of Tetricus, (an act of which there v/as no example,) 
cast a gloom over the minds of the senators. The insult, 
if intended for such, ended, however, with the procession. 
Aurelian made him governor of the southern part of Italy, 
and honored him with his friendship. He also bestowed on 
the Palmyrenian queen an estate at Tibur, where she lived 
many years, and her daughters matched into some of the 
noblest Roman families. 

The improvement of the city by useful public works, the 
establishment of daily distributions of bread and pork to the 
people, and the burning of all accounts of moneys due to 
the treasury, were measures calculated to gain Aurelian the 
popular favor. But a reformation of the coinage became the 
cause or pretext of an insurrection, the quelling of which 
cost him the lives of seven thousand of his veteran soldiers. 
Enveloped as the whole affair is in obscurity, the senators 
must have been implicated in it; for Aurelian's vengeance 
fell heavily on the whole body of the nobility. Numbers of 
them were cast into prison, and several were executed. 

Aurelian quitted Rome once more for the East, in order 
to carry on war against the Persians. On the road in 
Thrace, having detected his private secretary, Mnestheus, 
in some act of extortion, he menaced him with his anger. 
Aware that he never threatened in vain, Mnestheus saw that 
himself or the emperor must die : he, therefore, imitating 
Aurelian's writing, drew up a list containing his own name 
and those of the principal officers of the army as marked out 
for death. He showed this bloody list to those who were 
named in it, advising them to anticipate the emperor's cru- 
elty. Without further inquiry, they resolved on his murder, 
and, falling on him between Byzantium and Heraclea, they 
despatched him with their swords. 



M. Claudius Tacitus. 

A. u. 1028—1029. A. D. 275—276. 

After the death of the emperor Aurelian, a scene without 
example presented itself — an amicable strife between the 
senate and the army, each wishing the other to appoint an 
emperor, and the empire without a head and without a tu- 
mult for the greater part of a year. It originated in the 
following manner : 



A. D. 275.] TACITUS. 249 

The assassins of Aurelian speedily discovered their error, 
and Mnestheus expiated his treason with his life. The sol- 
diers, who lamented the emperor, would not raise to his 
place any of those concerned in his death, however inno- 
cently ; and they wrote to the senate, requesting them to 
appoint his successor. The senate, though gratified by the 
deference shown to them by the army, deemed it prudent to 
decline the invidious honor. The legions again pressed 
them, and eight months passed away in the friendly contest. 
At length, (Sept. 28,) the consul assembled the senate, and, 
laying before them the perilous condition of the empire, 
called on Tacitus, the First of the Senate, to give his opin- 
ion. But ere he could speak, he was saluted emperor and 
Augustus from all parts of the house ; and, after having in 
vain represented his unfitness for the office on account of his 
advanced age, he was obliged to yield to their wishes, and 
accept the purple.. The praetorian guards willingly acqui- 
esced in the choice of the senate ; and, when Tacitus pro- 
ceeded to the camp in Thrace, the soldieis, true to their 
engagement, submitted willingly to his authority. 

Tacitus was now seventy-five years old. He was one of 
those men who were, perhaps, less rare at Rome than we 
generally imagine; who, in the possession of a splendid for- 
tune, spent a life, dignified by the honors of the state, in the 
cultivation of philosophy and elegant literature. He claimed 
a descent from the historian of his name, whose works formed 
his constant study ; and after his accession to the empire, he 
directed that ten copies of them should be annually made 
and placed in the public libraries. 

Viewing himself only as the minister of the laws and the 
senate, Tacitus sought to raise that body to its former con- 
sideration, by restoring the privileges of which it had been 
deprived. Once more it began to appoint magistrates, to 
hear appeals, and to give validity to the imperial edicts. 
But this was merely a glimpse of sunshine irradiating the 
decline of its greatness. In history, there is no return ; and 
the real power of the once mighty Roman senate had de- 
parted forever. 

Aurelian had engaged a body of the Alans, a Sarmatian 
tribe who dwelt about Lake Meeotis, for the war against Per- 
sia. On the death of that emperor, and the suspension of 
the war, they ravaged the provinces south of the Euxine, to 
indemnify themselves for their disappointment. Tacitus, on 
taking the command of the army, offered to make good to 

F p 



250 PROBUs. [a. d. 276. 

them the engagements contracted by his predecessor. A 
good number of them accepted the terms and retired, and he 
led the legions against the remainder, and speedily reduced 
them. As these military operations fell in the winter, the 
emperor's constitution, enervated by age and the relaxing 
clime of southern Italy, proved unequal to them. His mind 
was also harassed by the factions which broke out in the 
camp, and even reached his tent ; and he sank under men- 
tal and corporeal suffering, at Tyana, on the 22d of April, 
276, after a brief reign of six months and twenty days. 



M. Aurelius Probus. 
A. u, 1029—1025. A. B. 276—282. 

On the death of Tacitus, his brother Florianus claimed 
the empire as if fallen to him by inheritance, and the legions 
yielded him their obedience; but the army of the East 
obliged their general, Probus, to assume the purple, and a 
civil war commenced. The constitution of the European 
troops soon, however, began to give way under the heat of 
the sun of Asia ; sickness spread among them ; desertions be- 
came numerous ; and when, at Tarsus in Cilicia, the army 
of Probus came to give them battle, they averted the contest 
by proclaiming Probus, and putting their emperor to death, 
after a reign of less than three months. 

Probus was another of those Illyrians, who, born in an 
humble station, attained the empire by their merit, and hon- 
ored it by their virtues. He entered the army young, and 
speedily became distinguished for his courage and his prob- 
ity. His merit did not escape the discerning eye of Vale- 
rian, who made him a tribune, though under the usual age; 
gave him the command of a body of auxiliary troops, and 
recommended him strongly to Gallienus, by whom, and by 
the succeeding emperors, he was greatly esteemed, and 
trusted with important commands. Aurelian rated him very 
highly, and is even thought to have destined him for his 
successor. 

After the death of Florianus, Probus wrote to the senate, 
apologizing for having accepted the empire from the hands 
of the soldiery, but assuring them that he would submit 
himself to their pleasure. A decree was unanimously passed, 
investing him with all the imperial titles and powers. In 



A. D. 277-279.] GERMAN WAR, 251 

return, Probus continued to the senate the right of hearing 
appeals, appointing magistrates, and of giving force to his 
edicts by their decrees. 

Tacitus had punished severely some of those concerned in 
the murder of Aurelian ; Probus sought out and punished 
the remainder, but with less rigor. He exhibited no enmity 
tow^ard those who had supported Florianus. 

The Germans had taken advantage of the interregnum 
which succeeded the death of Aurelian, to make a formidable 
irruption into Gaul, where they made themselves masters of 
not less than seventy cities, and were in possession of nearly 
the whole of the country. Probus, however, as soon as his 
affairs permitted, (277,) entered Gaul at the head of a numer- 
ous and well-appointed army. He gave the Germans several 
defeats, and forced them to repass the Rhine, with a loss, it is 
said, of 400,000 men. He pursued them over that river ; 
and nine of their kings were obliged to come in person to 
sue for peace. The terms which the emperor imposed were, 
the restoration of all their booty, the annual delivery of a 
large quantity of corn and cattle, and 16,000 men to recruit 
the Roman armies. These Probus distributed in parties of 
fifty and sixty throughout the legions ; for it was his wise 
maxim, that the aid derived from the barbarians should be 
felt, not seen. He also placed colonies of the Germans, and 
other tribes, in Britain, and some of the other provinces. 
He had, further, it is said, conceived the idea of making the 
conquered Germans renounce the use of arms, and trust for 
their defence to those of the Romans ; but, on considering 
the number of troops it would require, he gave it up, con- 
tenting himself with making them retire behind the Necker 
and Elbe, with building forts and towns in the country, be- 
tween these rivers and the Rhine, and running a wall, two 
hundred miles in length, from the Rhine to the Danube, as 
a defence to Italy and the provinces against the Alemans. 

After the conquest of the Germans, the emperor led his 
troops into Raetia and Illyria, where the terror of his name 
and his arms daunted the Goths and Sarmatians, and gave 
security to the provinces. He then (279) passed over to 
Asia, subdued the brigands of Isauria, expelled them from 
their fastnesses in the mountains, in. which he settled some 
of his veterans, under the condition that they should send 
their sons, when eighteen years of age, to the army, in order 
that they might not be induced, by the natural advantages 
of the country, to take to a life of freebooting, and prove as 
dangerous as their predecessors. Proceeding through Syria, 



252 pnoBus. [a. d. 279. 

he entered Egypt, and reduced the people named Blemmy- 
ans,* who liad taken the cities of Coptos and Ptolemais. He 
concluded a peace with the king of Persia, and, on his 
return through Thrace, he bestowed lands on a body of 
200,000 Bastarnians, and on some of the Gepidans, Vandals, 
and other tribes. He triumphed for the Germans and Bleni- 
myans on his return to Rome. 

A prince so just and upright, and, at the same time, so 
warlike as Probus, might have been expected to have no 
competitors for empire ; yet even he had to take the field 
against rival emperors. The first of these was Saturninus, 
whom he himself had made general of the East, a man of 
both talent and virtue, and for whom he had a most cordial 
esteem. But the light-minded and turbulent people of 
Alexandria, on occasion of his entry into their city, saluted 
him Augustus ; and, though he rejected the title and retired 
to Palestine, he yet, not reflecting on the generous nature of 
Probus, deemed that he could no longer live in a private 
station. He therefore assumed the purple, saying, with 
tears, to his friends, that the republic had lost a useful man, 
and that his own ruin, and that of many others, was inevi- 
table. Probus tried in vain to induce him to trust to his 
clemency. A part of his troops joined those sent against 
him by the emperor ; he was besieged in the castle of Apa- 
maea, and taken, and slain. 

After the defeat of Saturninus, two oflicers, named Proc- 
ulus and Bonosus, assumed the purple in Germany. They 
were both men of ability, and the emperor found it necessary 
to take the field against them in person. Proculus, being 
defeated, fled for succor to the Franks, by whom he was be- 
trayed; and he fell in battle against the imperial troops. 
Bonosus held out for some time; but, having received a de- 
cisive overthrow, he hanged himself. As he had been re- 
markable for his drinking powers, one who saw him hanging 
cried, " There hangs a jar, not a man." Probus treated the 
families of both with great humanity. 

Probus, though far less cruel, was as rigid a maintainer 
of discipline in the army as Aurelian had been. His mode 
was to keep the legions constantly employed, and thus to 
obviate the ill effects of idleness. When he commanded in 
Egypt, he employed his troops in draining marshes, improv- 
ing the course of the Nile, and raising public edifices. In 

* This people inhabited the mountains between Upper Egypt and 
the Red Sea. 



A. D. 282.] CARus. 253 

Gaul and Pannonia, he occupied them in forming vine- 
yards. His maxim was, that a soldier should not eat his 
food idly ; and he even used to express his hopes that the 
time would come when the republic would have no further 
need of soldiers. This language naturally produced a good 
deal of discontent; and when, on his march against the Per- 
sians, who had broken the peace, (282,) he halted at his 
native town of Sirmium, and set the soldiers at work to cut 
a canal, to drain the marshes which incommoded it, they 
broke out into an open mutiny, Probus jfled for safety to an 
iron tower, whence he was in the habit of surveying the prog- 
ress of the works; but the furious soldiers forced the tower, 
and seized and murdered him. They then lamented him, 
and gave his remains an honorable sepulture. 



M. Aurelius Cams. 
A. u. 1035—1036. A. D. 282—283. 

Notwithstanding their grief and repentance for the mur- 
der of Probus, the soldiers did not part with their power of 
choosing an emperor. They conferred the purple on Carus, 
the praetorian prefect; and the senate was, as usual, obliged 
to acquiesce in their decision. 

Carus was about sixty years of age. The place of his 
birth is uncertain, but probability is in favor of Illyricum. 
He stood high in the estimation of the late discerning em- 
peror, and he was undoubtedly a man of considerable ability. 

The first care of the new emperor was to punish the au- 
thors of the death of his predecessor. He then raised his 
two sons, Carinus and Numerian, (who were both grown 
up,) to the dignity of Caesars ; and, a& the barbarians, after 
the death of Probus, had passed the Rhine and the Lower 
Danube, he sent Carinus into Gaul, directing him, when he 
had repelled the invaders, to fix his residence at Rome, and 
govern there during his absence. He himself, taking Nume- 
rian with him, marched against the Sarmatians, (283,) 
whom he defeated with a loss of 16,000 slain and 20,000 
prisoners; and, having thus secured the Illyrian frontier, he 
led his army over to Asia for the Persian war. 

When Carus passed the Euphrates, the Persian monarch, 
Varanes {BaJiram) II., though an able and a valiant prince, 
being engaged in a civil war, could not collect a force suffi- 

CONTIN. 22 



254 CARINUS AND NUMERIAN. [a. D. 283. 

cient to oppose to the Romans : be therefore sent to propose 
terms of peace. It was evening when the ambassadors ar- 
rived at the Roman camp. Carus was at the time seated on 
the grass eating his supper, which consisted of a bowl of cold 
boiled peas and some pieces of salt pork, with a purple woollen 
robe thrown over his shoulders. He desired them to be brought 
to him, and when they came he told them that, if their master 
did not submit, he would in a month's time make Persia as 
bare of trees and standing corn as his own head was of hair; 
and, suiting the action to the word, he pulled off the cap 
which he wore, and displayed his head totally devoid of hair. 
He invited them, if hungry, to share his meal; if not, he 
bade them depart. They withdrew in terror; and Carus 
forthwith took the field, and recovered the whole of Mesopo- 
tamia; he defeated the troops sent against him, and took the 
cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon. He was advancing into 
the interior of Persia, when, one day as the army was en- 
camped near the Tigris, there came on a most furious thun- 
der-storm ; and, immediately after a most awful clap, a cry 
was raised that the emperor was dead. His tent was found 
to be in flames; but whether his death was caused by light- 
ning or by treachery, remained uncertain. 



M. Aurelius Carinus and M. Aurelius Numerianus. 
a. u. 1036—1038. a. d. 283—285. 

The death of Carus appears to have occurred about the 
end of the year 283. The authority of his sons was readily 
acknowledged ; and Numerian, apprehensive, as it might 
seem, of the designs of his brother, gave up the Persian war 
and set out on his return to Europe. 

Numerian was a prince of an amiable disposition, a lover 
and cultivator of literature, a poet, it is said, of no mean 
order, and an eloquent declaimer. He was married to the 
daughter of Arrius Aper, to whom Carus had given the im- 
port mt post of praetorian prefect ; and as, on account of a 
weakness in his eyes, Numerian was obliged to remain shut 
up in his tent, or to travel in a close litter, all public business 
was transacted in his name by his father-in-law. The army 
had reached the shores of the Bosporus when a report was 
spread that the emperor, whom they had not seen for some 
time, had ceased to exist. The soldiers broke into the im- 



A. D. 285.] CARINUS. 255 

perial tent, and there found only the corpse of Numerian. 
The concealment of his death and other circumstances 
caused suspicion to fall on Aper. He was seized and laid 
in chains; a general assembly of the army was held while 
the generals and tribunes sat in council to select a successor 
to Numerian. Their choice fell on Diocletian, the com- 
mander of the body-guard. The soldiers testified their ap- 
probation. Diocletian, having ascended the tribunal, made 
a solemn protestation of his own innocence, and then caused 
Aper to be led before him. " This man," said he, when he 
appeared, " is the murderer of Numerian ; " and, without giv- 
ing him a moment's time for defence, he plunged his sword 
into his bosom. 

It may cause some surprise that the army should have 
proceeded to the election of an emperor while Carinus was 
yet living. We know not what intrigues there may have 
been on the part of Diocletian ; but the vices of that prince 
are said to have been such as would fully justify his exclusion. 
His conduct at Rome had been so vicious, and he put such 
unworthy persons into office even during his father's life- 
time, that Carus cried he was no son of his, and proposed to 
substitute for him in the empire Constantius, the governor 
of Dalmatia, When the death of his father had removed all 
restraint, he gave free course to his vicious inclinations, dis- 
playing the luxury of an Elagabalus and the cruelty of a 
Domitian. The news, however, of the death of his brother, 
and the elevation of Diocletian, roused him to energy, and he 
placed himself at the head of his troops. After a succession 
of engagements, the decisive conflict took place (May, 285) 
on the plain of Margus, near the Danube in Moesia. Carinus 
was betrayed or deserted by his own troops, and he was slain 
by a tribune whose wife he had seduced. 



During the long period now elapsed, the aspect of the Ro- 
man world remained nearly as we have already described it. 
The absence of a respectable middle class of society, abject 
poverty and enormous wealth standing in striking contrast 
in the provinces as well as in Italy, unbridled luxury, and 
the want of all noble and generous feeling, every where 
met the view. At the same time, foreign trade, of which 
luxury is the great promoter, was in a most flourishing state,- 
and immense fortunes were acquired by traffic. The silks, 
the spices, and the precious stones and pearls of India, and 



256 LITERATURE. 

the arnbor of tlie Baltic, reached Rome in abundance, and 
were purchased by its luxurious nobles and their ladies at 
enormous prices. 

The history of this period has noticed two instances 
which may give us some idea of the wealth of individuals 
in those days : the one is that of a Roman nobleman, the 
emperor Tacitus ; the other that of an Alexandrian mer- 
chant. The landed and other property of the former pro- 
duced him an income of two hundred and eighty millions 
of sesterces, and his ready money at the time of his acces- 
sion sufficed for the pay of the army. The merchant was 
Firmus, who assumed the purple in the time of Aurelian. 
This man had a great number of merchantmen on the Red 
Sea for his trade with India; he carried on a commerce 
with the interior of Africa ; he contracted with the Blem- 
myans for the produce of their mines, and he had also com- 
mercial relations with the Saracens or Bedoween Arabs. 
He possessed, moreover, extensive manufactories, and it is 
said that he used to boast that the paper manufactured by 
him would suffice to maintain an army. 

The Roman army at this period was evidently on the de- 
cline in respect to discipline and moral force. The soldiers 
were now accustomed to luxuries and indulgences unknown 
to the troops of the republic or of the early days of the em- 
pire. Barbarians entered the Roman service in great num- 
bers ; and we shall ere long find officers of the very highest 
rank and power bearing German names. 

The maintenance of good military roads had always been 
an object of solicitude with the Roman government. We 
have seen the care of Augustus on this head ; and that wise 
emperor had also instituted a system of posts for the despatch 
of letters on public business, and the conveyance of persons 
employed by the government. This system was now great- 
ly extended, and post-houses were established at regular dis- 
tances along all the great roads, furnished with horses, mules, 
and carriages, for the conveyance of goods as well as persons. 
These beasts and carriages were provided gratis by the in- 
habitants of the district in which the post-house stood, and 
the supplying of them was a most onerous burthen. Any 
one bearing an imperial diploma could demand horses and 
carriages, and food for himself and attendants without pay- 
ment. The system was in effect the same as that which 
prevails at the present day in Turkey, where the sultan's 
frmdn corresponds exactly with the imperial diploma. 
When the emperor was on his way to any part of his do- 



PHILOSOPHY. 257 

minions, his whole court and retinue were maintained at the 
charge of the inhabitants of the towns where he halted ; and 
at each he expected to find a palace ready furnished. In 
like manner, the wants of the troops when on their march 
were to be supplied ; and when we reflect how frequently 
they were removed from one frontier to another, and how 
incessant most of the emperors were in their movements, 
we may form some conception of the oppression endured by 
the subjects. 

Literature partook of the general decline. After the 
reign of Trajan, we do not meet with a single Latin poet 
or historian possessing any merit. The Greek language 
was not, however, equally barren. Plutarch, who wrote on 
such a variety of subjects in so agreeable a manner, flour- 
ished under the Antonines. The witty Lucian was his 
contemporary. History was written by Arrian, Dion Cas- 
sius, and Ilerodian, with more or less success. The travels 
ofPausanias in Greece are of great value to the modern 
scholar ; and the medical writings of Galen, and the works 
of Ptolemy on astronomy and geography, long exercised a 
most powerful influence over the human mind in both 
Europe and Asia. In poetry the Grecian muse of this 
period aimed at no higher flight than her Latin sister. 

The branch of literature (if we may so term it) most culti- 
vated at this time was philosophy. The Stoic system found 
many followers; it numbered among its professors the em- 
peror Marcus Aurelius, who bequeathed to posterity his 
Meditations, in ten books; and Arrian, the historian and 
statesman, published the lessons of his master, Epictctus, 
But the philosophy which far eclipsed all the others, was the 
New Platonism of Alexandria, of which it is necessary to 
speak somewhat in detail. 

In the writings of Plato there is much that has a mystic 
tone, borrowed perhaps from the Pythagoreans, or derived 
immediately from the East. In such parts the usual charac- 
teristics of mysticism appear ; simple truths are enveloped in 
figurative langunge, and vain attempts are made at explain- 
ing things beyond the reach of human knowledge. As such 
we may mention the Timajus and similar pieces, which are 
certainly the least valuable portion of the philosopher's 
writings. But owing to their obscurity, which gives them a 
vague air of magnificent profundity, these were the very 
pieces that some most admired; and their resemblance to 

22* GG 



258 PHILOSOPHY. 

the dreamy speculations of the East strongly recommended 
them to those whose turn of mind led them to mysticism 
and to the cultivation of occult philosophy, Alexandria was 
the chief seat of this Platonism, and its professors there ob- 
tained the name of Eclectics ; for, taking their leading 
principles from the works of Plato, they added such of 
those of the Stoics, the Peripatetics, and of the Oriental 
philosophy, as were capable of being brought into harmony 
with those of their master. The writings of Philo the Jew 
will show how Platonism and the Law of Moses were made 
to accord. 

Toward the close of the second century, this philosophy 
received a more extended form from a teacher named Am- 
monius Saccas, a man of great ingenuity and of a lively 
imagination. His object was to bring all sects of philoso- 
phy, and all forms of religion, Christianity included, into 
one harmonious whole. His system differed from that of 
the Eclectics in this, that, while they viewed the different 
systems as composed of truth and error, he regarded them 
as all flowing from the one source of truth, and therefore 
capable of being reduced to their original unity. He held 
the world to be an eternal emanation of the Deity; and he 
adopted and extended the Egyptian and Platonic notion of 
Daemons of different ranks and degrees. The human soul, 
he asserted, might, by means of certain secret rites, become 
capable of perceiving and conversing with these intelligences. 
This art, which he termed Theurgia, was a kind of magic, 
the exercise of which was confined to those of highest order 
in the sect. With this was combined a system of rigid ascet- 
icism, enjoined on all who aimed at freeing the soul from the 
bonds of the body. Ammonius, who was born a Christian, 
represented Christ as having been an admirable Theurgist; 
and he labored to bring the Christian doctrine into accord- 
ance with his own peculiar views, by representing such parts 
of it as resisted his efforts as interpolations made by ignorant 
disciples. As many of the Christians studied in his school, 
the effect of the New Platonism, as it was named, or their 
speculations, proved extremely injurious, and many of the 
subsequent errors and superstitions into which they fell, may 
be traced to that source. The most distinguished of the 
New Platonists were Porphyry, Plotinus, Proclus, Simplicius, 
and Jamblichus. The sect flourished till the time of the 
final triumph of Christianity. 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 259 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

PERSECUTIONS OP THE CHURCH. CORRUPTION OF RELI- 
GION. THE EBIONITES. GNOSTIC HERESIES. MONTA- 

NUS. THE PASCHAL QUESTION. COUNCILS. THE HIE- 
RARCHY. PLATONIC PHILOSOPHY, ITS EFFECTS. RITES- 

AND CEREMONIES. CHRISTIAN WRITERS. 

The Christian religion, during the last two centuries, had 
made rapid progress, and extended itself to Spain, Gaul, 
Britain, and the most remote parts of the Roman empire ; 
but it at the same time had to endure external persecution 
and internal corruption. It also underwent a change in its 
discipline and government, and thereby lost a portion of its 
original simplicity. Of these subjects we will now treat. 

Nothing can be more erroneous than the idea given by 
Gibbon and other skeptical writers of the tolerant spirit of 
the ancient world. This boasted tolerance merely extended 
to allowing each people to follow its own national system 
of religion, and worship its own traditional deities, provided 
they did not attempt to make proselytes. It was in effect the 
toleration still to be found in Mohammedan countries; but, 
with respect to the worship of new or foreign deities by their 
own citizens, the laws both of Greece and Rome were strict 
and severe. One of the charges on which the excellent Soc- 
rates was condemned to death, was that of introducing new 
deities; and the language of the Roman law was, "Let no 
one have any separate worship or hold any new g^ds; nor 
let any private worship be offered to any strange gods, unless 
they have been publicly adopted."* We find that this law 
was acted on in all times of the republic, and that the magis- 
trates had the power to prevent any foreign mode of worship, 
drive from the city or otherwise punish its professors and 
ministers, and seize and destroy their religious books. t The 
reason of these laws was probably political rather than re- 
ligious; for all governments have a natural and a just aversion 
to secret societies, which are so easily and so frequently con- 

* Cicero, Laws, ii. 8. 

t Livy, iv. 30; xxxix. 16. Val. Max. i. 3. Dion, lii. 36. 



260 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

verted to political purposes, and the professors of a religion 
different from that of the state will always form a distinct so- 
ciety, and, as they increase in numbers, may prove dangerous 
to the political constitution. 

The early Christians were unfortunate in many circum- 
stances. The Jews, who were their most implacable ene- 
mies, w ere established in all parts of the empire ; and they 
were not only exposed to their calumnies and persecutions, 
but, as they were regarded as merely a sect of that people, 
Ihey came in for their share of the odium under which they 
lay. Again, proselytism was of the very essence of the new 
faith ; and this was a point on which the Roman government 
was most jealous and apprehensive. Further, the Christians 
were taught to hold all idolatrous rites in the utmost abhor- 
rence ; and, as these were woven into the whole texture of 
public and private life, they found it necessary to abstain 
from the theatres, and from all public shows and solemnities ; 
and they were obliged to be equally on their guard in the re- 
lations of private life, and hence they were regarded as mo- 
rose and unsociable. The spiritual monotheism of the Chris- 
tians was, moreover, considered as atheism * by those who 
had no conception of religion disjoined from temples, images, 
and a plurality of objects of vi'orship. The simple rites and 
practices of their religion also furnished materials of calumny 
to their enemies. The symbolical eating and drinking of the 
body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, for example, was 
converted into Thyestian banquets, and their Agapae or love- 
feasts were represented as scenes of riot and pollution. The 
Christians themselves, too, were not always prudent; they 
gave at times needless offence, and many exhibited what we 
may term a selfish eagerness to obtain the crown of martyr- 
dom. 

We thus see that the Christians were amenable to the 
ancient law of Rome for introducing a new religion and 
neglecting to comply with that of the state, and for their zeal 
in making proselytes to their opinions. They were at the 
same time odious to the vulgar, for their abstinence from the 
temples and the public shows. All kinds of calumnies were 
therefore spread abroad respecting them ; and we need not 
wonder at these finding ready acceptance with the vulgar, 
when we recollect how they operated on the minds of such 

* [Much the same as, at the present day, deism and atheism are 
often confounded by the ignorant and bigoted. — J. T. S.] 



PERSECUTIONS. 361 

men as Tacitus and Suetonius. To such a pitch did the 
popular dislike of the Christians at length rise, that the guilt of 
all public calamities was laid on them. " If the Tiber," says 
Tertullian,* "has overflowed its banks; or the Nile has not 
overflowed ; if Heaven has refused its rain ; if the earth has 
been shaken ; if famine or plague has spread its ravages, 
the cry is immediately raised, ' To the lions with the Chris- 
tians ! ' " 

When Christianity had triumphed over its foes, and was 
become the religion of the state, men began, like voyagers 
escaped from shipwreck, to look back with an eye of compla- 
cency on the perils through which it had passed, and felt a 
pleasure in magnifying its calamities and sufferings. The 
number of persecutions was gradually raised to the mystic 
number of ten, the number of the victims was prodigiously 
magnified, and imagination amused itself in varying the 
modes of their torture. The apostle John, for example, was 
[pretended to have been] thrown, at Rome, by order of 
Domitian, into a caldron of boiling oil, from which he came 
forth unscathed; and St. Babylas was, at Pergamus, put in- 
to a brazen bull, heated red-hot; though these martyrdoms 
were apparently unknown to the learned Eusebius, and there 
are little grounds for supposing that there was any persecu- 
tion in the time of Domitian. The chief inventors of these 
pious legends were the monks, a class of men who have al- 
ways exhibited a strong inclination for the supernatural and 
the horrible. We will here briefly sketch the sufferings of 
the church, as they are to be derived from authentic sources.t 

The first persecution of the Christians is that by Nero, 
above related. That, as we have seen, was merely an effort 
made by a tyrant to throw the guilt with which he was him- 
self charged on a body who were generally obnoxious : 
there was nothing whatever religious or political in it, and 
we have no reason for supposing that it was of long duration, 
or extended beyond the city of Rome. Eusebius mentions a 
tradition that St. Paul was beheaded and St. Peter crucified 
at this time; but little reliance is to be placed on such ac- 
counts, and it is extremely doubtful if the latter ever came to 
Rome. 

Under the Flavian family, the Christians were unmolested. 

* Apol. 40. 

t In the following account of the persecutions, we have made Euse- 
bius our principal guide. Very few of the Acts of the Saints and Mar- 
tyrs of the first three centuries, as Mosheim observes, are genuine, 



262 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

Domitian, indeed, is said, toward the close of his reign, to 
have exercised some severities against them. On this occa- 
sion, we are told, the two grandsons of Judas, the brother of 
our Lord, were brought before him, as being of the family of 
David. In answer to his inquiries, they told him that their 
whole property consisted of a small piece of land, which they 
cultivated themselves ; and they showed their hands hardened 
with toil. The kingdom of Christ which they expected they 
described as a celestial one, which would not appear till the 
end of the world. The tyrant, apprehending little from the 
heirs of such a kingdom, dismissed them with contempt, and 
put an end to the persecution.* 

In the reign of Trajan, Eusebius says, "there was a partial 
persecution excited throughout the cities, in consequence of 
a popular insurrection," i. e. an insurrection of the populace . 
against the Christians, the usual source of persecution. It 
would appear to have been very partial indeed, for he men- 
tions but one martyr, St, Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem, a 
kinsman of our Lord's. The celebrated letter of Pliny to 
Trajan, however, proves that in some parts of the empire the 
Christians were exposed to much peril. This amiable man, 
being appointed governor of Pontus and Bithynia in the year 
103, found numerous charges brought against persons of all 
ages and sexes as Christians. Unwilling to punish, and un- 
certain how to act, he wrote to the emperor for advice.t Tra- 
jan, in his reply, directed that the Christians should not be 
sought after, but that, if accused and convicted, they should 
be punished, and that no anonymous accusations should be 
attended to. Considering the Roman law on the subject, 
and the general state of sentiment and feeling at the time, 
this rescript is highly creditable to the humanity and the 
justice of the emperor. From Pliny's letter we learn that a 
chief ground of proceeding against the Christians was the em- 
peror's aversion to clubs and societies, [lietcBrias,) for which 
reason Pliny was very strict in prohibiting the Christians 
from meeting together to celebrate the Eucharist or hold 
their love feasts. 

"We further learn that the number of the Christians was 
very considerable, both in the towns and in the country, and 
that the heathen temples had been nearly deserted ; but that, 
when the law was put in force, such numbers abandoned their 

* Hegesippus ap. Euseb. iii. 20. t Plin. Ep, x. 97, 98. 



PERSECUTIONS. 263 

faith, th^t Pliny had strong hopes that the superstition, as he 
termed it, might be suppressed. 

So far was Hadrian from being a persecutor, that, ac- 
cording to Justin Martyr,* Serenius Granianus, the procon- 
sul of Asia, having written to him *' that it did not appear 
just to put the Christians to death without a regular accu- 
sation and trial, merely to gratify the outcries of the popu- 
lace," he issued a rescript, directed to Granianus's successor, 
Minucius Fundanus, directing him to pay no regard to mere 
petitions and outcries, but to judge of the accusations himself, 
and to p jnish the accused according to the quality of their 
offence, if it was clearly proved that they had transgressed 
the laws, but at the same time to punish severely any one 
who should brinsr a false and slanderous accusation. The 
emperor, it would seem, wrote to the same effect to some of 
the other governors.f 

During the reign of the excellent Antoninus Pius, the 
Christians suffered no molestation on the part of the govern- 
ment ; but they had much to endure from the malignity and 
superstition of the populace of the provincial towns of Asia. 
The emperor, however, interposed in their behalf, and re- 
newed the directions of Hadrian to the authorities in the 
provinces. 

Hitherto the sufferings of the Christians had been com- 
paratively light; but under the reign of the philosophic M. 
Aurelius, a severe persecution raged against them. It is not 
quite clear whether any edicts were made by the emperor di- 
recting them to be punished, | but he certainly held them in 
contempt, and he was anxious to uphold the ancient religion 
and ceremonies of the state, and may therefore have been in- 
clined to deal rigorously with those who rejected and opposed 
them. Still, on examining the accounts of the martyrdoms 
in this reign, it will appear that they resulted in general from 
the usual cause — the hatred of the populace towards the 
Christians. 

The year 166, in which Aurelius first left Rome for the 
German war, is usually fixed on as the commencement of the 
persecution. A Christian, named Ptolemaeus, and two others 
were put to death at Rome, solely, we are told, on account 
of their faith. On this occasion, Justin Martyr (by whom we 

* Euseb. iv. 8, 9. \ Euseb. iv. 26. 

± Melito {ap. Euseb. iv. 26) would seem to assert that there were 
decrees issued against the Christians by Aurelius; but Tertullian 
(Apol. 5) avers the contrary. 



264 THE ClllUSTlAN CHURCH. 

are informed of the fact) addressed his second Apology to 
the oniporor and the senate, lie was himself, soon after, 
witli some others, put to death by the city prefect Rusticua. 
As Rusticus was a philosopher, and the Epicurean Crescens, 
Justin's great opponent, was then at Rome, there appears to 
be some reason for supposing that the pliilosophers had 
already adopted that spirit of inveterate hostility to the 
Christians which caused them to become their unrelentinjr 
persecutors. It was also in this year that the persecution 
broke out at Smyrna, in which tlie venerable Bishop Poly- 
carp, and about a dozen other Christians, sulfered for their 
faith. The church of Smyrna wrote, on this occasion, an 
epistle to those of Pontus, from which we learn the following 
particulars. 

The letter commenced with an account of the other 
martyrs and their sulferings. " The by-standers," it says, 
*' were struck with amazement at seeing them lacerated with 
scourges to their very blood and arteries, so that the flesh con- 
cealed in the very inmost parts of the body, and the bowels 
themselves, were exposed to view. Then they were laid upon 
sea-shells, and on the sliarp heads of spears on the ground, and, 
after passing through every kind of punishment and torment, 
were at last thrown as food for wild beasts." The youth and 
beauty of one of these martyrs, named Germanicus, interest- 
ed the proconsul so nuich, that he earnestly implored him to 
take compassion on himself; but the ardent youth even irri- 
tated the beast to which he was exposed, and speedily per- 
ished. The multitude thou began to call for Polycarp. This 
venerable prelate hatl, on the urgency of his friends, retired 
from the city ; but he was discovered and seized by those 
sent in quest of him. When brought back to Smyrna, he was 
conducted straight to the Stadion, (where public shows were 
exhibited,) and led to the tribunal of the proconsul, who 
urged him to deny Christ, and swear by the genius of Caesar. 
" Eighty-aud-six years," said the holy prelate, " have I served 
Christ, and he never did me wrong; and how can I now 
blaspheme my King that has saved me?" After several vain 
attempts to inlluence him, the proconsul caused the herald to 
proclaim aloud, " Polycarp confesses that he is a Christian." 
The multitude then, both Jews and Gentiles, cried out, 
" This is that teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, 
the destroyer of our gods, lie that teaches nmltitudes not to 
sacrifice, not to worship." They insisted that a lion should 
be loosed at him; but, being informed that that part of the 



PERSECUTIONS. 265 

show was over, they cried out that he should be burnt ulive , 
and they forthwitli began to collect wood and straw from the 
shops and baths for the purpose, ** the Jews, us uHual^ freely 
offering their services." Jt was the custom to secure the 
victim to the stake with nails ; but at his own request Poly- 
carp was merely bound to it. lie uttered a most devout 
prayer, and fire was then set to the pile. But the flames did 
not approach liim ; *' they presented," says the narrative, '* an 
appearance like an oven, as when the sail of a vessel is filled 
with the wind, and thus formed a wall round the body of the 
martyr; and he was in the midst, not like burning flesh, but 
like gold and silver, purified in the furnace. We also per- 
ceived a fragrant odor, like the fumes of incense or other 
precious aromatic drugs." The executioner at length, by 
the order of the people, ran him through witii his sword; and 
the gush of blood, it is added, was so great as to extinguish 
tlie fire. At the instigation of the Jews, the body of the 
martyr was burnt, lest, as they said, the Christians should 
begin to worship Polycarp instead of him that was crucified. 
7''he letter asserts that the martyrdom of Polycarp terminated 
the persecution at Smyrna ; but as martyrs are mentioned at 
Pergamus, victims may still have continued to be given to the 
popular fury. 

Hitherto the persecution of the Christians seems to have 
been nearly confined to Asia, and to have been chiefly ex- 
cited by the Jews ; but in the year 177, Gaul, whither the 
gospel had now penetrated, became the scene of persecution 
on a scale of magnitude as yet without example. The 
churches of Lyons and Vienne wrote to those of Asia a full 
account of their sufferings, from which it appears that the 
governor and the populace were equally envenomed against 
the Christians, and that the emperor himself, when consulted 
on the subject, merely directed that those who were Roman 
citizens should be beheaded, those who renounced their faith 
be dismissed, leaving the rest to be exposed to the beasts, or 
put to death in other barbarous modes. Among the victims 
were Pothinus, bishop of Lyons, a venerable prelate of ninety 
years of age, and Attains of Pergamus, a man of great zeal 
and piety. But the constancy of a female slave, named 
Blandina, was the subject of admiration to both Christians 
and Gentiles. Every refinement of torture was exercised 
upon her ; day after day she was tortured or exposed to the 
beasts, who, however, would not even touch her. At length 
8he was put in a net, and flung before a furious bull ; and 

CONTIN. 23 II H 



'266 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

when he had tossed her till she became insensible, she was 
despatched by the executioner. Among the modes of torture 
employed was an iron chair made quite hot, in which the 
victims were compelled to sit till their flesh was literally 
roasted ; hot plates of brass were also fastened to the tender- 
est parts of their bodies. Heathen slaves, belonging to the 
Christians, were seized, and by terror or persuasion were in- 
duced, says the letter, *' to charge us with the feasts of Thy- 
estes, and the incests of Q3dipus, and such crimes as we may 
neither think nor speak of, and such indeed as we do not even 
believe were committed by men." 

The reign of Commodus was a period of repose to the 
church. Severus also favored the Christians in the first 
years of his reign; but in 202 he issued an edict forbidding 
any one to become a Jew or a Christian. This gave occa- 
sion to the exercise of some severities, of which the principal 
scene was Alexandria. In the reigns that intervened between 
Severus and Decius, the Christians were either favored or 
unmolested, with the exception of that of Maximin, who per- 
secuted the heads of the church, on account of their attach- 
ment to his virtuous predecessor. 

Decius, as we have seen, was anxious to restore the ancient 
institutions of Rome. As these were connected with the re- 
ligion of the state, and as the Christians, whose faith was 
most strongly opposed to that religion, were now become ex- 
ceedingly numerous, he saw that he must suppress their doc- 
trine before he could hope to carry his design into effect. 
He accordingly issued an edict, requiring all his subjects, 
under heavy penalties, to return to the ancient religion ; and 
a persecution of the church, more severe than any that had 
yet occurred, was the immediate result. The fervid declama- 
tion of St. Cyprian, or the highly-colored fancy-piece of St. 
Gregory Nyssen,on this subject, cannot be relied on with im- 
plicit confidence ; but from the fact that numbers (including 
priests and even prelates) apostatized, and from the con- 
stancy of the tradition, there can be no doubt but that the 
persecution was both general and severe. The bishop of 
Rome suffered martyrdom, those of Jerusalem and Antioch 
died in prison. The celebrated Origen was also among 
those who suffered imprisonment and torture in this calami- 
tous period. 

Valerian is said to have been at first extremely favorable 
to the Christians ; but when he was in the East, influenced 
by Macrianus, he wrote to the senate, ordering the severest 



PERSECUTIONS. 267 

measures to be adopted against them. The persecution 
which ensued was terminated by the captivity of the emperor 
in the year 2G0 ; and Gallienus wrote circulars to the bishops, 
authorizing them to resume the public exercise of their of- 
fices, and assuring them of his protection. 

Among the martyrs in the time of Valerian, the most illus- 
trious was St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. 

This able, zealous, and eloquent prelate had prudently 
concealed himself during the persecution of Decius. When 
Valerian's first edict was issued, the proconsul summoned 
him before him, and informed him that the emperor required 
all who had abandoned the religion of the state to return to 
it.* Cyprian replied that he was a Christian, and a bishop, 
a worshipper of the true and only God. A sentence of banish- 
ment was then pronounced against him, and he was sent to 
Curubis, a city on the sea-coast, about forty miles from 
Carthage. On the arrival, however, of a new proconsul, he 
was allowed to return to Carthage, and reside in his gardens 
near the city. He had not been there long when (258) the 
proconsul received positive orders to proceed capitally against 
the Christian teachers. An officer was therefore sent with 
some soldiers to arrest Cyprian and bring him before the tri- 
bunal. As his cause could not be heard that day, the officer 
took him to his own house for the night, where he treated 
him with much attention, and allowed his friends free access 
to him. The Christians kept watch all through the night, in 
the street before the house. In the morning, the bishop was 
conducted before the proconsul's tribunal. Having answered 
to his name, he was called on to obey the emperor's mandate, 
and offer sacrifice. He replied, " I do not sacrifice." The 
proconsul urged him, but he was firm ; and that magistrate, 
having consulted with his council, read from a tablet his sen- 
tence in the following words : " That Thascius Cyprianus 
should be immediately beheaded, as the enemy of the gods 
of Rome, and as the chief and ringleader of a criminal as- 
sociation, which he had seduced into an impious resistance 
against the laws of the most holy emperors. Valerian and G;d- 
lienus." The bishop calmly responded, " God be praised ! " 
the Christians, who were present in great numbers, cried out, 
** Let us too be beheaded with him." Cyprian was then led 
away to the plain before the city ; the presbyters and dea- 
cons accompanied him, and aided him in his preparations for 

* The prelate had been a convert. 



^68 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

death; he took off his upper garment, and, directing them to 
give the executioner five-and-twenty pieces of gold, laid his 
hands on his face, and bent his head, which was struck off at 
one blow. In the night his body was conveyed, amidst a 
multitude of lights, to the burial-place of the Christians, and 
there deposited, the government giving no opposition.* 

After the reign of Valerian, the church had rest for nearly 
half a century, when its last and greatest persecution broke 
out. We will relate that event in its proper place. 

On reviewing the history of the church for the first three 
centuries, various subjects of reflection present themselves. 
We may, for example, observe, as we have already done, that 
the sufferings of the Christians have been greatly exaggerated 
by the frauds and fictions of succeeding ages ; that the per- 
secutions on the part of the Roman government were politi- 
cal rather than religious, as they occurred in the reigns of the 
best emperors, who were evidently prompted by the desire of 
restoring the ancient institutions to which the Roman great- 
ness was ascribed; that, finally, the greatest suiferings of the 
Christians were caused by the fanatic spirit of the populace, 
especially in the cities of Asia, and at the instigation of the 
Jews; and were sometimes brought on by their own impru- 
dence. It may further be observed, that the charge made 
against the heathen priesthood of exciting the fanaticism of 
the people out of regard to their own gains, does not seem to 
be well founded. They did not, in fact, except in Asia Mi- 
nor, form a separate caste or order ; and they therefore had 
not the corporate spirit which would inspire them with jeal- 
ousy and fears. Finally, we would observe that the popular 
saying, " The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," 
should be received with great limitations. That many were 
led to view Christianity with a favorable eye when they saw 
the constancy with which even women and children met tor- 
ture and death, is not to be denied ; the same effects were 
observed in England in the time of dueen Mary Tudor. 
But false religion, heresy, even atheism itself, have had their 
martyrs ; and the progress of Christianity should be ascribed 
to its true causes, namely, its purity, and the other causes al- 
ready enumerated. 

It is a melancholy reflection, that, giving the greatest ex- 

* There is a very circumstantial account of the martyrdom of Cyp- 
rian, by the deacon Pontius, who was in attendance on him ; the pro 
consular acts also remain, and the two accounts harmonize. 



PERSECUTIONS. 269 

tent consistent with truth and probability to the number of 
Christians immolated by the policy or the intolerance of hea- 
then Rome, it still fell infinitely short of that of the victims 
sacrificed to the bigotry of Papal Rome. When we think of 
the crusade against the Albigenses, of the 50,000 or 100,000 
Protestants destroyed in the Netherlands, the St. Bartholo- 
mew massacre in France, the 100,000 persons burnt by the 
Inquisition, and the other dreadful deeds of the church of 
Rome, the persecutions of Aurelius, of Decius, and even of 
Diocletian, shrink into absolute insignificance ; and we are 
forced to acknowledge that the perversion of true religion can 
outgo any false religion in barbarity. At the same time we 
must protest against the acts of Popery being laid to the 
charge of genuine Christianity. 

The evils of persecution were only transient ; but those in- 
flicted by heresy and false doctrine were deep and perma- 
nent, and their ill effects are felt even at the present day. 
The pride of the human intellect, and the desire to discover 
those secrets which are not to be known to man, gave origin 
to most of those opinions which we find recorded as monstrous 
heresies by the Fathers of the Church. These may be all 
comprehended under the term Gnosis, {rvwaig^ knoioledgCj) 
the word used to designate the false philosophy which then 
prevailed, and which had been derived from the sultry re- 
gions of India and Persia. To this is to be added the New 
Platonism of the Greeks, which, however, had borrowed large- 
ly of the Oriental philosophy, and the Judaism or corrupted 
religion of the people of Israel. From these various sources 
flowed all the corruptions of the pure and simple religion of 
the gospel; and so early did their operation commence, that it 
may be said that the stream had hardly burst from the sacred 
mount when it was defiled with mundane impurities. 

It is not our intention to treat of all the heresies enumera- 
ted by the Fathers. We shall only touch upon the principal 
ones, commencing with those which originated in Judaism.* 

From the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul, 
we learn that the Jewish converts in general, from devotion 
to their law, whose precepts they regarded as of everlasting 
obligation, and from their ignorance of the true nature and 
spirit of Christianity, held that the observance of the cere- 

* In the remainder of this chapter, oyr immediate authority has been 
the learned, candid, and judicious Mosheim. The references to Ire- 
nseus and other writers will be fi)und in his works. 

23* 



270 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

monial law was necessary for salvation. Against this errone- 
ous notion the apostle Paul exerted himself with the utmost 
vigor ; and he succeeded in checking its progress among 
the Gentile converts. It still, however, continued to prevail 
among the Christians of Judaea; and after the destruction of 
Jerusalem, in the reign of Hadrian, those who persisted in 
maintaining it withdrew to Persea, or the region beyond the 
Jordan, and formed there a church of their own. They soon, 
however, split into two sects, named Nazarenes and Ebion- 
ites;* each of which had its peculiar gospel, differing from 
those which have been received by the church in general. 
The former, who held that the Mosaic law was binding only 
on Jews, were not regarded as heretics ; but the latter, deny- 
ing the miraculous conception of Christ, and asserting that 
the Mosaic law, with all the additions made to it by the tra- 
ditions of the Pharisees, was binding on every one, were nat- 
urally placed under that denomination. Neither attained to 
any importance; and after no very long time their names 
alone remained to testify their former existence. 

On looking through the ancient religions of Europe, from 
the Frozen Ocean to the Mediterranean, one is struck with 
the absence of all purely malignant beings: in those of Asia, 
on the contrary, we usually encounter one or more deities 
whose delight is in the production of evil, or whose office is 
destruction. In the Mosaic religion, the evil power is justly 
represented as the mere servant of the supreme God ; but in 
some of the uninspired creeds, he is exalted into the rival and 
enemy of the great Author of good. This system received 
its fullest development in the ancient religion of Persia, 
where, beside the original cause of all, there was a hierarchy 
of good spirits ruled over by a prince named Ormuzd, who 
were engaged in ceaseless conflict with Ahriman, the prince 
of darkness, and his subordinate spirits.t The Apocryphal 
books of the Jews show that during the Captivity they had im- 
bibed many ideas from the religion of their conquerors ; and 
at the time when Christianity was first promulgated, the Ori- 

* That is, The Poor, as the term signifies in Hebrew. The best- 
founded opinion as to its origin is, that it was adopted by themselves 
on account of their humility or poverty. 

t [It should, however, be added, that both Ormuzd and Ahriman 
were subordinate to the supreme first cause, according to this system, 
and that it was a fundamental article that, in the end, Ahriman was to 
be overcome by Ormuzd. — J. T. S.] 



GNOSTICISM. 271 

ental philosophy, or Gnosis, as this system is denominated, 
was widely spread over western Asia. 

The doctrine of the two principles evidently arose from 
the wish to explain the origin of evil. Nature and reason 
lead man to regard the Supreme Being as purely good. That 
evil could not proceed from liim was manifest ; whence, then, 
the ills of nature and the vice and pains of man? Matter 
which composed the parts of the world and the bodies of man 
was an apparent cause ; but matter, sluggish and inert, could 
hardly be supposed to have organized itself, and produced the 
beauty, order, and harmony, so conspicuous in the material 
world ; and if that task was assigned to the Deity, he became, 
by necessary inference, the author of all the evil that thence 
resulted. There must therefore have been some intelliorent 
bemg the author of evil. On the subject of the nature of this 
being there was much difference of opinion. Some regarded 
him as equal to and coeternal with the good Deity; others 
held him to be generated of matter; others, again, maintained 
that he was the offspring of the Deity, who, from pride and 
envy, had rebelled against the author of his being, and erected 
a separate state for himself. Many viewed the creator of the 
world as one of the spirits generated by the Deity, who was 
moved to his work by a sudden impulse, and acted with the 
approbation of the Deity, from whom pride afterwards caused 
him to fall off, and to seduce men to disobedience. Others 
thought he had a natural tendency to evil ; others, that, like 
the world and man, his work, he was composed of both good 
and evil. All agreed in the belief of an eternal warfare be- 
tween the good and evil principles. 

The professors of this philosophy gave to the good being 
the appellation of Depth, (Bvddg,) on account of his unfathom- 
able nature; they named his abode the Fulness, (/IAtjoo)//^,) 
a vast expanse resplendent with everlasting light. Here he 
abode for ages in solitude and silence, till at length, moved 
by some secret impulse, he begat of himself two intelligences, 
one of either sex. These gave being to others, who becom- 
ing progenitors in their turn, the region of light was gradual- 
ly peopled with a numerous family of blessed spirits; but the 
farther their remove, in the order of birth, from the original 
parent, the less was their degree of goodness, knowledge, and 
power. To the higher class of these spirits was given the 
name of JEons, (.^libveg,) or eternal beings. 

Matter lay, rude and undigested, far beyond the realms of 
light. It was agitated by turbulent, irregular, intestinal mo- 



272 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

tions, and contained in it the seeds of moral and natural 
evil. In this condition it was found by the ^on, who was to 
give it form. This being, named the Demiurge (Ji]/ui,ovQjog) 
or Worker, having fashioned the world, filled it with men and 
other animals, giving them particles of the divine essence to 
animate their material bodies. He then threw off his allegi- 
ance to the author of his being, assumed the government of 
the world, dividing it into districts, of which he assigned 
the government to the inferior spirits who had assisted him 
in the work of creation. The Deity, however, did not aban- 
don the world altogether. Moved with compassion for the 
divine portion of man which was confined in the prison of 
the flesh, and liable to be involved in ignorance and tainted 
with vice, he from time to time sent forth teachers, endowed 
with wisdom and filled with celestial light, to instruct man- 
kind in truth and virtue ; but the Demiurge and his associates 
persecuted and slew the divine messengers, and opposed the 
truth by superstition and sensual pleasures. Their efforts 
were but too successful ; a small portion only of mankind 
continued in the worship of the true God and the practice 
of virtue; all the rest were sunk in idolatry and sensuality. 
The former, when freed from their bodies by death, were 
admitted at once into the realms of supernal light; the latter 
were forced to migrate into various bodies ; but the greater 
part, if not all of them, will at length be purified and restored 
to their celestial country, and then the Deity will dissolve the 
material world, and reduce it to its primitive state, and vice 
and misery will cease forever. 

The belief of the essential malignity of matter was calcu- 
lated to produce two opposite effects on the moral conduct 
of man. Some would think it their duty to invigorate the 
spirit and keep the body under by meditation, by fasting, 
by self-denial, and mortification of every kind. Hence the 
Yogees of Brahmanism, the Fakeers and Dervishes of Mo- 
hammedanism, and the monks of Buddhism and corrupted 
Christianity. Others, maintaining that the essence of piety 
consisted in a knowledge of the Supreme Being, and the 
maintenance of an intercourse with him by contemplation 
and abstraction, and that the pure soul was unaffected by the 
acts of its impure companion, held that the practice of virtue 
was not enjoined by the Deity, but was only the artifice of 
the prince of the world to keep men in obedience. They 
therefore freely indulged all their sensual propensities. This 
explains the charges of dissoluteness made against some sects 



GNOSTICISM. 273 

of the Gnostics ; but these charges, which are certainly ex- 
aggerated, must not be implicitly received. 

Had this false philosophy remained distinct from Chris- 
tianity, it might have proved comparatively innocuous. But 
the Gnostic philosophers looked forw^ard to the appearance 
of another of the divine messengers vi^ho were to redeem 
mankind from the tyranny of the Demiurge ; and many of 
them, struck by the miracles of Jesus Christ, and the purity, 
sublimity, and comprehensiveness of his doctrine, which 
tended to abrogate the Mosaic law, (regarded by them as the 
work of the Demiurge,) and overthrow the idolatry of the 
heathen, saw in him the long-expected envoy of heaven, and 
embraced his religion. Their firmly-rooted tenets, however, 
did not accord with its divine simplicity ; and they found it 
necessary to modify it considerably. For this purpose, they 
asserted that the religion of Christ consisted of two sets of 
doctrines ; the one easy, and suited to the capacity of the 
vulgar, which was contained in the books of the New Testa- 
ment ; the other of a higher nature and deeper import, re- 
vealed by Christ in private to his apostles, for their knowl- 
edge of which they were indebted to Peter, Paul, and 
Andrew; in whose names they forged various Gospels and 
Epistles. They also maintained that the copies of the New 
Testament in common use had been corrupted, and produced 
what they affirmed to be genuine transcripts of the real 
originals. They moreover appealed to certain books which 
bore the venerable names of Seth, Noah, Abraham, and other 
holy men, as their authors, as well as to those propagated in 
the name of Zoroaster and other Eastern sages. They thus 
were enabled, in conformity with their tenets, to deny that 
the Mosaic law was given by God, to maintain that Christ 
was by nature far inferior to the Father, and that he never 
really assumed a natural body ; and totally to reject the doc- 
trine of the resurrection, regarding all the passages relating 
to it as merely figurative. It proved fortunate for Christianity 
that the Gnostics were not united in one consistent body, but 
were divided into several sects ; for, agreeing in general princi- 
ples, they differed widely among themselves as to their manner 
of viewing and explaining particular doctrines; and their dis- 
sensions gave their adversaries many advantages in the contest. 

From sundry passages in the apostolic writings,* it may be 
justly inferred that the Gnosis had affected Christianity within 

* Col. ii. 8. 1 Tim, i. 3, 4 ; iv. l,seq.; vi. 20. 2 Tim.ii.l6. Tit.iii. 9. 

1 1 



274 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

a very few years from the date of its first promulgation. It 
was not, however, till the second century, and the reign of 
Hadrian, that the Gnostics began to form themselves into 
sects, and became formidable to the church. We will now 
enumerate the principal founders of these sects, and state their 
leading tenets. 

At the head of the Gnostic heretics is usually placed Si- 
mon Magus, who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles ; 
but it is extremely doubtful if he be the Gnostic teacher ; 
and at all events he was an open enemy, and not a secret 
corrupter of Christianity. The same obscurity hangs over 
Menander and Cerinthus, who are regarded as his successors. 
The two former are said to have been Samaritans, the latter 
a Jew. All studied at Alexandria, and all held the leading 
Gnostic tenets. Cerinthus, however, manifested some re- 
spect for the law of Moses, declaring that such parts of it as 
Christ had sanctioned should be observed. He also thought 
more favorably than the Gnostics in general of the creator of 
the world, who, according to him, had acted in creation con- 
formably to the will of the supreme Deity. He did not, 
therefore, regard matter as absolutely evil, or deny the 
resurrection. According to him, the man Jesus was born in 
the natural way of Joseph and Mary, and the JEon Christ 
descended on him, at his baptism, in the form of a dove ; and 
previous to the crucifixion, the ^Eon returned to the Pleroma, 
leaving the man to suffer the pains of the cross. There ap- 
pear to be no grounds for charging Cerinthus with immoral- 
ity of either life or doctrine. His errors were those of the 
head rather than of the heart. 

Saturninus, a native of Antioch, was a Gnostic philoso- 
pher, who embraced Christianity in the second century. He 
taught that Satan, the ruler of matter, was coeval with the 
Deity ; that the world was created by seven angels, without 
the knowledge of the Deity, who, however, was not dis- 
pleased when he saw it, and breathed into man a rational 
soul ; that he then divided the world into seven districts, of 
which he committed the government to the creating angels, 
one of whom was over the Hebrew nation, and gave it a law 
through Moses. Satan, he said, enraged at the creation of 
the world, and the virtue of its inhabitants, formed another 
race of men out of matter, with malignant souls like his own ; 
and hence arose the great moral differences to be observed 
among men. After a time, the founders of the world re- 
belled against God, who sent his Son on earth, arrayed in 



GNOSTIC HERESIES. 275 

an apparent body, to deliver the souls of good men from 
both them and Satan. The moral discipline of Saturninus 
was ascetic and severe; he discouraged marriage; he en- 
joined abstinence from wine and flesh-meat ; and taught to 
keep under the body, as being formed from matter which 
was in its essence evil and corrupt. 

While Saturninus was spreading his doctrines in Syria, 
an Alexandrian philosopher, named Basilides, who had em- 
braced Christianity, was engaged in diffusing a somewhat 
similar system through Egypt. The leading principles of 
Gnosticism formed the basis of his system also, in which the 
Deity and the seven ^ons formed a sacred Ogdoad. Two 
of these yEoris, named Wisdom {Sojjhia) and Power, (Dyna- 
mis,) generated certain princes, or angels, who, having 
founded a heaven for themselves, generated other inferior 
angels, who, in their turn, formed a heaven and generated 
angels, and the process went on till the number of heavens 
was three hundred and sixty-five, which were all under the 
dominion of a supreme lord, who bore the mystic name of 
Abraxas.* The prince of the last of these heavens, which 
lay on the confines of the eternal matter, conceived the idea 
of reducing it to form, which he effected with the aid of his 
angels. The origin of the vice and misery of man being 
explained in the usual way, but of course with some varia- 
tions, Basilides affirmed that Mind, or Intelligence, (Noi~.<;,) 
the first of the seven ^ons, was directed by the Deity to 
descend on earth, and put an end to the dominion of the 
presiding angels, and restore the knowledge of his father 
among them. He therefore took the semblance of a body, 
and, when the god of the Jews caused him to be condemned 
to death, he adopted that of Simon the Cyrenajan, who was 
compelled to bear his cross; and it thus was Simon, and not 
Jesus, wlio, in reality, was crucified. The souls of those 
who obeyed the precepts of Christ would, at death, pass to 
the realms of supreme bliss; those of the disobedient would 
migrate into the bodies of men and other animals. The 
body being composed of matter, which was incapable of pu- 
rity, would never be raised. The moral system of Basilides 
was extremely rigorous. He asserted the utmost freedom 
of the will, declared that God would forgive no offences but 
those that were involuntary, and regarded the inclination to 

* That is, 365 ; for the letters of it, taken as numerals, give that num- 
ber. Of such nonsense is mysticism usually composed. 



276 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

any sin as identical with the actual commission of it. Some 
of the followers of Basilides, however, abusing the maxim 
that " to the pure all things are pure," and asserting that the 
soul is unaffected by the acts of its material companion, 
plunged into vice and licentiousness. 

Another Alexandrian, named Carpocrates, the contemporary 
of Basilides, also became the founder of a sect. His theo- 
logical principles appear not to have differed much from the 
ordinary Gnostic ones. Writers are unanimous in describing 
his moral system as licentious in the extreme. In their 
accounts there is, probably, as usual, much exaggeration; 
but it is certain that he held that there was no natural dis- 
tinction between good and evil ; and that women, and all 
other things, should be common. We know not, however, 
how these principles may have been modified, so as to make 
them accord with the notions of the Deity, and the necessity 
of virtue, common to him with all the Gnostic sects. 

The reputation and influence of these heresiarchs were 
far eclipsed by those of Valentine, another Alexandrian, and 
a presbyter of the church. After spreading his system among 
his countrymen, he went to Rome, where he made such a 
number of proselytes, that the church, in alarm, excommuni- 
cated him as a heretic. He then took up his abode in the 
isle of Cyprus, and openly became the head of a sect which 
was soon very widely diffused. 

' The system of Valentine, as transmitted to us by the an- 
cient Fathers, is so intricate that we cannot undertake to 
give an account of it. It also, in wildness and absurdity, 
seems to transcend all others ; but, no doubt, many things 
have been misunderstood; and to others Valentine might 
have been able to give a tolerably rational appearance. He 
placed in the Pleroma thirty ^Eons, fifteen of either sex, 
which he divided into three orders. To these he added 
four others of a different nature. Two of these last were 
named Christ and Holy Ghost ; and the last of the ^ons 
was Jesus, the most noble of them, who was formed by the 
united efforts of all the others. One of the female JEons, 
named Sophia, produced a daughter, who was called Acha- 
moth, and who, being expelled from the Pleroma, became, by 
a long and intricate course, the origin of the world, the his- 
tory of whose creation, and of the nature of man, is related 
with more complexity than in the other Gnostic systems, with 
which that of Valentine agrees in all the main points. The 
moral system founded on this theology by Valentine, was 



GNOSTICS. 277 

strict, and free from impurity ; but many of his followers 
made it sanction their sensuality and vice. 

Many other sects, founded on the doctrine of the two prin- 
ciples, are enumerated by ancient writers ; but as they never 
were of any importance, we need not notice them. The 
names of Bardesanes, Tatian, and Marcion, however, demand 
some attention. 

Bardesanes was a Christian of Edessa, and a writer in the 
defence of his faith in the time of Marcus Aurelius. He 
adopted and modified the Oriental doctrine, and became the 
founder of a sect ; but he afterwards returned to the church,, 
and opposed his own doctrines. Tatian, a native of Assyria, 
was also a writer in the cause of his religion ; and, in like 
manner, he embraced the doctrine of the two principles. 
His exact theological tenets are not known, but his moral 
system was ascetic in the extreme ; for he enjoined his dis- 
ciples to renounce wedlock, abstain from animal food, and 
live in solitude, on the slightest and most meagre diet, and 
even to use water instead of wine in the Lord's Supper. 
Marcion, the son of a bishop in Pontus, being excommunica- 
ted by his own father for either his immorality or his heresy, 
came to Rome ; where, being unable to obtain readmission 
into the church, he joined a Syrian named Cerdo, and be- 
came the head of a sect which spread widely and continued 
long. His system contained the usual doctrine of the two 
opposite principles, and of the separate creator of the world, 
and of the unreal body of Christ. His rule of life was 
ascetic, and so severe as to make death an ol^ject of desire, 
rather than of apprehension. 

On taking a general view of the different modifications of 
Gnosticism, we find them all agreeing in recognizing the 
eternity of matter ; in regarding the founder of the world as 
totally distinct from the supreme Deity ; in believing the 
bodies of men to have been formed by the former being, 
while their souls proceeded from the latter ; and in maintain- 
ing that the body, when once dissolved by death, would never 
be reanimated ; while the soul, if it flung off the yoke of the 
creator of the world, would ascend to the realms of light and 
happiness. The Asiatic Gnostics, holding to the ancient 
Oriental principle, believed in the existence of a separate 
prince of matter, the author of evil ; but this prince was un- 
known to the systems of the Egyptian Gnostics, who, on the 
other hand, introduced into them Egyptian notions respect- 

CONTIN. 24 



278 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 

ing the heavens, the stars, the descent and ascent of souls, 
and similar fancies. 

The asceticism which springs from the doctrine of the 
evil nature of matter, and the consequent necessity of deliv- 
ering the soul from the influence of the body, lies at the 
foundation of the greater part of the errors and corruptions 
into which the church fell. The Mosaic law, notwithstand- 
ing its numerous ceremonial observances, was a cheerful 
system ; and Christianity, that " perfect law of liberty," as it 
is most justly called, is decidedly opposed to all austerity and 
rigor. Yet we find, even in the second century, the germs 
of those opinions and practices which gradually brought in 
monkery and its attendant evils. At this time appeared in 
Phrygia a heretic named Montanus, whose opinions were em- 
braced by Tertullian, one of the most distinguished Fathers 
of the church at the time, and whose system imbodied many 
of the rigorous principles above alluded to, which had hith- 
erto been little more than the peculiar notions of individ- 
ual Christians. This visionary (for such he appears to have 
been) conceived that the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete promised 
to the apostles, had descended on himself, for the purpose 
of empowering him to foretell future events, and establishing 
a more rigorous system of morals than that founded on the 
precepts of Christ and his apostles. He drew over numbers 
to his opinions, among whom were two wealthy women named 
Priscilla and Maximilla, from the former of whom the sect 
received one of its appellations, that of Priscillianists. His 
disciples, as well as himself, pretended to the gift of proph- 
ecy, and the sect spread rapidly through the empire. The 
bishops of Asia excommunicated Montanus and his followers, 
and their example was followed by the prelates in other parts ; 
but the sect continued to exist in a separate state. 

The principal features in the doctrine of Montanus were 
the injunction of a greater frequency, and greater rigor, in 
fasting, than had as yet prevailed in the church ; * the for- 
bidding of second marriages ; the absolute and irrevocable 
excommunication of adulterers, as well as of murderers and 
idolaters ; the requiring virgins, as well as widows and wives, 
(to whom the usage had hitherto been confined,) to wear 
veils ; the forbidding Christians, in time of persecution, to 
seek their safety in flight, or purchase it from the heathen 

* The only fast hitherto observed in the church was that of Passion- 
week. 



THE PASCHAL FEAST. 279 

magistrates. Montanus, also, as may be inferred from the 
writings of his follower Tertullian, prohibited all kinds of 
costly attire, and ornaments of the person, and discouraged 
the cultivation of letters and philosophy. In all these opin- 
ions, as we have said, he did little more than enforce prin- 
ciples which had long been held by the more rigorous 
members of the church; but while these had maintained 
them in a spirit of meekness and charity, he arrogantly im- 
posed them as the dictates of the Holy Spirit, whom, con- 
sequently, those who refused to submit to these trifling and 
irrational precepts, would incur the guilt of resisting. This, 
combined with his absurd and dangerous prophecies, fully, 
we think, justified the church in refusing to hold communion 
with him. 

Another source of heresy, in this period, was the nature 
of Christ. Praxeas, an opponent of Montanus, denied all 
distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; 
and affirmed that it was the Father, the sole God, that took 
a human body in the person of Christ. Hence his follow- 
ers were named Monarchians and Patripassians. On the 
other hand, Theodotus and Artemon denied the divinity of 
Christ, and maintained that his superior excellence was 
solely owing to his body being divinely begotten. 

The dispute of greatest magnitude in the church, during 
this period, was that respecting the Paschal feast, or day 
of the institution of the Lord's Supper. This the Asiatic 
Christians kept on the fourteenth day of the first Jewish 
month, the day of the Passover, alleging the authority of the 
apostles Philip and John. But as this interrupted the great 
fast of Passion- week observed by the church, all the other 
Christians deferred it till the eve of the day of the resurrec- 
tion, resting on the authority of the apostles Peter and Paul. 
As the day of the Passover was variable, depending on the 
moon, (the Jewish months being lunar,) there was this fur- 
ther inconvenience, that the third day from it, that of the 
resurrection, did not always fall on the first day of the week, 
the day fixed by the church for its observance. Various 
attempts having therefore been made, to no purpose, to get 
rid of this anomaly, toward the close of the second centu- 
ry, Victor, bishop of Rome, supported by several provincial 
councils, wrote in very dictatorial terms to the churches of 
Asia, requiring them to conform to the practice of the other 
churches; and, when they returned a spirited refusal, he was 
proceeding to excommunicate them, when Irenaeus, bishop 



280 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH* 

of Gaul, interposed, and a compromise was effected. The 
Asiatics, however, retained their peculiar usage till the time 
of the council of Nicaea. 

We will now proceed to notice the government and doc- 
trines of the church during the second and third centuries. 

Each church, i. e. congregation, with its bishop and pres- 
byters, was independent, forming a little republic, presided 
over by magistrates chosen by the people, and each meas- 
ure of moment was decided by the popular voice. These 
churches were at first confined to the cities and towns ; 
but, gradually, as the faith was spread among the country 
people, churches were formed in the villages, over which 
were set presbyters, sent by the church in the adjacent city 
or large town, who exercised nearly all the functions of the 
bishop, and were therefore named Chorepiscopi, i. e. rural 
bishops. These daughter-churches were, however, like all 
others, independent; but they testified a filial reverence for 
the church which had founded them, and whose authority 
they in some sort recognized. By degrees, it became the 
practice for the churches of a province to form themselves 
into an association, and to hold conventions for the discus- 
sion of matters of common interest, at which the churches 
were represented by their bishops. This practice is said to 
have originated in Greece ; and it is easy to recognize the 
resemblance between these Synods, (2'i5>'o^ot,) as they were 
called by the Greeks, or Councils, [Concilia,) as they were 
styled by the Latins, and the ancient Amphictyonies, and 
the Synods of the Achaean and JEtolian Leagues.* The 
laws and regulations made in these assemblies were termed 
Canons, [K^i.i'oveg,) i. e. rules. 

The introduction of these councils caused a great alter- 
ation in the constitution of the church. The original rights 
of the people became, in consequence of them, nearly eva- 
nescent, for every matter of importance was now determined 
by the councils. On the other hand, the dignity and au- 
thority of the prelates was proportionably enlarged. Their 
tone grew bolder, and they now spoke of themselves as the 
legitimate successors of the apostles, and empowered to im- 
pose laws by their own authority. The primitive equality 
among the bishops themselves also disappeared ; for, as it 
was necessary that a council should have a president, the 
office was bestowed on the bishop of the chief city of the 

* See History of Greece, pp. 24 and 440. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH. 281 

province, which city was naturally selected as the most ap- 
propriate place for holding the council. Hence arose the 
title and dignity of Metropolitan ; and further, as councils 
became more extensive, and began to include the prelates of 
more provinces than one, it was deemed expedient to have a 
chief for each division of the earth included in the Roman 
empire ; and a tacit superiority was therefore conceded to 
the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, with prece- 
dence to the first, on account of the greater dignity of the 
city in which he resided. These three ecclesiastical poten- 
tates were afterwards named Patriarchs. In this manner, 
from the smallest beginnings, arose the Hierarchy of the 
church, which, in course of time, attained to such an as- 
tounding eminence. 

The high authority of the Hebrew Scriptures enabled the 
ministers of the church to enlarge their pretensions to au- 
thority. They conceived or represented themselves to have 
succeeded to all the rights of the Jewish priesthood. The 
bishop accordingly claimed the rights and authority of the 
high-priest; the presbyters those of the ordinary priests; 
the deacons those of the Levites. Hence followed the de- 
mand of tithes and first-fruits, which there is abundant rea- 
son to suppose was made even before the third century. 
It is not unlikely that it was also these Jewish notions that 
gave origin to the distinction of clergy and laity,* which 
very early prevailed in the church. 

In the third century we find among the clergy a variety 
of inferior officers, such as Sub-deacons, Acolyths, [attend- 
ants,) Ostiaries, {door-keepers,) Readers, and Exorcists. As 
these performed duties which had hitherto been discharged 
by the deacons, we see nothing improbable in the supposition 
that they were indebted for their origin to the pride of these 
last-named ministers, who now confined themselves to the 
more honorable functions of their office, devolving the more 
menial ones on an inferior class of persons. Perhaps, how- 
ever, the more simple solution will be found in the principle 
of the division of labor, which the great increase of the 
church may now have called into operation. 

Such, then, was the appearance presented by the Chris- 
tian church at the close of the third century. The distinc- 
tion was drawn clear and broad between the clergy and the 
laity; the former forming an order variously subdivided, 

* KXrimxoi, from xXfiqoq, lot or office; Xa'ixoi, from i,aogypeQpl6. 



J J 



282 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

and claiming peculiar privileges. Were we to adopt the 
assertions of Cyprian, Eusebius, and other Christian writers, 
who find the causes of all the persecutions in the vices of 
the clergy, we should view them as utterly depraved ; but 
these writers indulged too much in rhetorical exaggeration 
to deserve implicit credit; and though it must be conce- 
^ded, that pride, ambition, avarice, luxury, and other vices, 
defiled the purity of the Christian priesthood, the truth is 
probably contained in the assertion of Origen, that, though 
such was undoubtedly the case, the preeminence, in point 
of virtue, in the Christian ministers, as compared with the 
heathen magistrates and other persons in office, was incon- 
testable. They were, in fact, men, and, as such, of different 
degrees of moral worth; if some were eminently bad, others 
were as eminently good, and the great majority indifferent. 
Finally, to repeat an observation already made, the errors 
or vices of its professors cannot be laid to the charge of the 
Christian religion. 

The first Christians, mostly selected from the humbler walks 
of life, had been ignorant or careless of literature and phi- 
losophy ; but, in the course of time, philosophers were num- 
bered among the converts to Christianity, and their attempts 
at making it harmonize with their previous notions, were a 
principal c-ause of its corruption. We have already shown 
this in the case of the Gnostics ; and we shall now briefly 
exhibit the influence of the philosophy of Greece on the 
doctrines of the church. 

The first philosopher who appears to have joined the 
Christian society, was Justin, named the Martyr. He was 
a Platonist ; and such also were most of the other Christian 
philosophers, for the tenets of Plato were those which ap- 
peared most akin to the doctrines of the gospel. But it was 
the Eclectic Platonism of Alexandria that was chiefly fol- 
lowed by the Christians, who had a seminary in that city, 
named the Catechetic School, which was successively pre- 
sided over by Pantaenus, Athenagoras, and Clement, and in 
which the attempt was made to bring religion and philosophy 
into unison. A contest prevailed between the followers of 
this system and the advocates for gospel simplicity ; but the 
victory was on the side of the former, and the formation, 
toward the end of the second century, of the sect of the 
New Platonists, by the celebrated Ammonius Saccas, as- 
sured their triumph and the corruption of the gospel. The 
learned among the Christians now began, like the Gnostics, 



CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 283 

to maintain, that in the Scriptures there was, beside the lite- 
ral sense, a latent and higher one ; for thus only could their 
narratives and precepts be made to accord with the new 
philosophic ideas. In this they followed the example of the 
Jewish Platonist, Philo, who had already employed this sys- 
tem to some extent ; and any one who peruses his writings, 
or those of Justin, Clement of Alexandria, and the other 
early Christian philosophers, will easily perceive how widely 
it departs from all the principles of sane interpretation. As, 
however, many saw the danger of making such high matters 
known to the simple and ignorant, the plan of the old Egyp- 
tian priesthood was adopted, and the principles of their re- 
ligion were taught to the people with all plainness and sim- 
plicity, while the philosophic interpretation was reserved for 
the more advanced in faith, and even to them only commu- 
nicated orally. Hence arose what has been termed the Se- 
cret Discipline, {Disciplina Arcani;) that is, in effect, mystic 
theology. Hence, too, followed a similar distinction in mor- 
als ; there was one rule for the multitude, another for the 
aspirants to higher sanctity and to perfection. These last 
were, on the Gnostic principles already explained, to seek 
retirement and mortify the flesh, avoiding marriage and all 
indulgence of the senses; while the former were left to live 
like other men, to engage in the affairs of the world, and 
become the fathers and mothers of families. This was the 
origin of hermits, monks, and coenobites, of whom we shall 
hereafter treat more largely. 

A twofold distinction in the discipline and ceremonies of 
the church speedily followed. These philosophizing Chris- 
tians, reflecting on the mysteries of the heathen religions, 
thought that it would be becoming to have something sim- 
ilar in the church. The laity was therefore divided into the 
Profane and the Initiated or Faithful ; the former, who had 
either not been yet baptized, (such being named Catechu- 
mens or learners,*) or those who for some offence had been 
expelled from the communion of the Faithful, were only ad- 
mitted to a portion of the divine service ; while the latter 
enjoyed all the rights and privileges of the full Christian, 
voting in the assemblies, being present at all parts of the 
service, and partaking of the Agapas or Love-feasts, and 
of the Lord's Supper. A holy silence toward the profane 
respecting these mysteries was required from them. The 

* Ot xartjxoviiisvoiy the being instructed. 



284 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

terms belonging to the heathen mysteries were freely and 
fondly employed, and baptism and the Eucharist were re- 
garded as of the most awful import, and far removed from 
their original simplicity. In the former, which was publicly 
administered every year, at Easter and Whitsuntide, by the 
bishop or presbyters, the persons to be baptized, after they 
had repeated the creed and confessed, and renounced their 
sins, were immersed in water, signed with the cross, anoint- 
ed, and by prayer and imposition of hands dedicated to God. 
They then, in token of the nevi^ birth, received milk and 
honey, and the ceremony thus concluded. The Lord's Sup- 
per was administered every Sunday. A portion of the bread 
which formed a part of the ordinary oblations of the faithful, 
was separated, and was consecrated by the prayers of the 
bishop ; and it then was divided and distributed, as also was 
the wine when it had been previously mixed with water.* A 
portion of both the elements was sent to those who were 
sick or absent. This rite was regarded as absolutely neces- 
sary to salvation, and there appears reason to believe that 
even in the second century the superstition respecting it was 
such as to cause it to be administered to infants. 

It is manifest, that in form, in discipline, and in doctrine, 
the church was no longer what it had been in the days of the 
apostles. Some of the changes were the necessary conse- 
quence of the progress of time and the alteration of circum- 
stances ; but others, and by far the greater in number, and 
most pernicious in effect, had been introduced in imitation 
of the Jewish hierarchy, of the mysteries of the heathen re- 
ligion, and its rites and ceremonies, or from the desire to 
make Christianity correspond with the philosophy of the 
East, or with that of Plato. Though the effect was inju- 
rious, the motives of the authors of the changes were, in 
general, pure, and they acted more from ignorance than 
design. 

During this period, the church began to have a literature 
of its own. The apostolic Fathers, (as those are named 
who had been contemporaneous with any of the apostles,) 
Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Hermas, Ignatius, and Poly- 
carp, have left some writings, all, with the exception of a 
trifling allegory, the Shepherd of Hermas, in the epistolary 
form. But some are spurious, and others have suffered from 

* Blood and water having flowed from the side of Jesus when he 
was pierced with the spear. 



FATHERS OF THE CHURCH. 385 

interpolation ; and they are of little value, except as witnesses 
of the doctrine of the church in their time. Their immense 
inferiority to those of St. Paul is very striking. In the sec- 
ond century flourished Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and 
Theophilus, who wrote Apologies or defences of the Chris- 
tian religion, beside treatises on various subjects. Irenseus, 
bishop of Lyons, in Gaul, has left a work, in five books, 
against heresies, whence we chiefly derive our knowledge of 
them. Clement of Alexandria, a man of great learning, but 
too eager to find the heathen philosophy in the Jewish and 
Christian Scriptures, was the author of numerous works; 
three of which, namely, the Paedagogue, the Exhortation, and 
the Strom ata, or Patchwork, have come down to our times. 
The only Latin writer remaining from this century is Ter- 
tullian, bishop of Carthage, a man of vigorous capacity, but 
feeble in judgment, and morose and melancholy in temper. 
His style possesses strength, but wants elegance ; and his 
arguments are rather rhetorical, than correct and con- 
vincing. 

The principal Greek writers of the third century were 
Julius Africanus, Dionysius the Great, bishop of Alexandria, 
Gregory, bishop of New Caesarea, (named Thaumaturgus, 
i. e. Wonder-worker, from the miracles which he was said 
to have wrought,) Methodius, and Hippolytus; but their 
works, which were not of a high order, have mostly perished. 
Far superior to all of this or the preceding age was Origen, 
a presbyter of Alexandria, a man of most extensive learning, 
of profound piety, and of high talent ; but in whom, as in 
most of the Fathers, imagination largely preponderated over 
judgment. 

The Latin writers of this century were Cyprian, bishop 
of Carthage, and the two apologists, Arnobius and Minu- 
cius Felix. Cyprian was pious and eloquent ; but his style 
is too rhetorical, and his temper was too haughty and over- 
bearing. 



HISTORY 



OF 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 



PART III. 

THE CHRISTIAN RMPERORS. 



CHAPTER L* 

DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN. 

A. u. 1038—1058, A. D. 285—305. 

STATE OF THE EMPIRE. CHARACTER OP DIOCLETIAN. IM- 
PERIAL POWER DIVIDED. THE BAGAUDS. CARAUSIUS. — - 

REBELLION IN EGYPT. PERSIAN WAR. TRIUMPH OP THE 

EMPERORS. THEIR RESIGNATION. PERSECUTION OP 'THE 

CHURCH. 

The Roman empire had now lasted for three centuries. 
During that period, the forms of the republic under which 
the policy of Augustus had concealed the despotism of the 
imperial rule, had been silently laid aside, and the people 
were become accustomed to the display of arbitrary power, 
upheld by the arms of the soldiery. Occasionally, a faint 
gleam of the ancient Roman spirit broke forth, as in the 
time of the emperor Tacitus ; but the general aspect pre- 
sented by the inhabitants of the Eternal City, as it now 
began to be called, was that of a sensual, enervated nobility, 
and a beggarly, turbulent populace. The provinces, enjoy- 

* Authorities : The Epitomators, the Panegyrists, and Lactantius. 



A.D. 285.] CHARACTER OF DIOCLETIAN. 287 

ing the rights of which Rome had once been so jealous, 
exhibited more of virtue and of vigor; and nearly all the 
emperors, for the two last centuries, had been provincials by 
origin. While the civil condition of the empire was thus 
undergoing inevitable change, its ancient systems of religion 
were fast receding before that of the gospel, and an expe- 
rienced eye might easily discern that the final triumph of the 
latter was certain. We are now to witness that triumph, to 
behold, at the same time, the Roman emperors assuming the 
pomp and parade of the monarchs of the East, the irruptions 
of the barbarians becoming every day more formidable, and 
the empire of the West finally sinking beneath their attacks. 

Diocletian, into whose hands the empire had now fallen, 
was another of those able Illyrian peasants whom their own 
talents and merits had raised to the height of imperial pow- 
er. He is said to have been the freedman, or the son of a 
freedman, of a Roman senator named Anulinus. The place 
of his birth was a small town in Dalmatia.* He entered 
the army, and gradually rose to the post of commander of 
the body-guards, which he held when the votes of his com- 
panions in arms invested him with the purple. Good sense 
and prudence were the distinguishing features in the character 
of the new emperor. His courage was calm and collected, 
rather than impetuous ; and he never employed force where 
policy could avail. In this, as in some other points, he re- 
sembled Augustus ; and the personal courage of both has 
accordingly been called into question by malignant or super- 
ficial observers. The empire which Augustus had founded 
Diocletian remodelled, and his name stands at the head of 
a new order of things. 

Diocletian used his victory over Carinus with a modera- 
tion which had never hitherto been equalled. None of the 
adherents of his adversary suffered in life, fortune, or honor. 
Though unversed in letters, and ignorant of the philosophy 
of the schools, he appreciated the mild philosophy of M. Au- 
relius, and declared his intention of making him his model 
in the art of government. In imitation of that emperor, or, 
more probably, from the suggestion of his own sound judg- 
ment, he resolved to give himself a partner in the empire. 
The extensive frontiers of the Roman dominion were now 

* Its name is supposed to have been Doclia, from a tribe of Illyrians, 
and his own name was probably Docles, which he Hellenized to Dio- 
des, and then Latinized to Diocletianus. See Gibbon, ch, xiii. The 
Gentile name of his patron was apparently Valerius. 



288 DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN. [a. D. 286-287. 

SO constantly and so vigorously assailed by the Persians and 
Germans, that no single person could attend to their defence ; 
and experience had shown that generals intrusted with the 
command of large armies, might become the rivals of their 
sovereigns. The person whom Diocletian fixed on as 
his colleague was his ancient mate in arms, Maximianus, 
who, born a peasant in the district of Sirmium, had, like 
himself, risen solely by merit. A second Marius, Maximian 
was rude, brutal, and ferocious, a brave soldier, an able 
officer, but neither a general nor a statesman of any account. 
For the superior wisdom and knowledge of Diocletian, he 
had the utmost respect, and he always stood in awe of his 
genius. It is remarkable that Diocletian was able to exer- 
cise as much influence over the rude Maximian, as Aurelius 
had possessed over the luxurious Verus — a proof, perhaps, 
of his greater force of mind. 

Diocletian first conferred on his friend the dignity of a 
Csesar, and then raised him to the more elevated rank of an 
Augustus, (Apr. 1, 286.) On this occasion, the emperors 
assumed, the one the surname of Jovius, the other that of 
Herculius, in allusion to their different characters, and the 
parts they were to bear in the state. Diocletian retained 
for himself the administration of the provinces of the East, 
and fixed on Nicomedia as his place of residence ; to Max- 
imian he assigned those of the West, and Milan became his 
imperial abode. 

In the following year, (287,) Maximian found employment 
for his arms in suppressing an insurrection of the peasantry 
of Gaul, who, under the name of Bagauds, a term of dubious 
origin,* were spreading devastation through the country. It 
is remarkable that, at all periods of her history, France has 
presented the spectacle of a rural population reduced to the 
extreme of misery by the oppression of an aristocracy, or of 
the government. Predial servitude to a tyrannic nobility 
was the condition in which the Romans found the Gallic 
peasantry ; under their own dominion, the same system was 
continued, and the evil was aggravated by the weight of 
taxation, and the insolence of a haughty soldiery. The 
Franks and other German conquerors succeeded to this 
power, and transmitted it to the feudal lords of the middle 
ages, with whose descendants it continued to the close of the 

* It is derived by some from the Celtic Bugad^ a tumultuous as- 
sembly. 



A. D. 289.] THE BAGAUDS. 289 

eighteenth century ; and, in consequence of the extreme di- 
vision of landed property which has since taken place, and 
the high direct taxes imposed on the proprietors, the govern- 
ment appears likely to become, ere long, the owner of the 
far greater part of the produce of the soil, and the cultiva- 
tors to sink gradually to the condition of the serfs, their 
ancestors. 

The jacquerie^ or insurrection of the French peasantry, in 
the fourteenth century, as narrated in the graphic and ani- 
mated pages of Froissart, will enable us to form a conception 
of the rising of the Bagauds, in the fourth century. In both 
cases, the insurgents were unable to make head against the 
fully-armed troops opposed to them ; in both, the vengeance 
taken on them was cruel and remorseless. 

The leaders of the Bagauds, named JElianus and Aman- 
dus, had assumed the imperial ensigns ; their coins may still 
be seen ; but their ambition was short-lived. A more fortu- 
nate usurper appeared in Britain. The Franks and other 
German tribes of the north coast having now begun to ad- 
dict themselves to piracy, a Roman fleet was stationed at 
Boulogne, {Bononia,) in order to protect the coasts of Gaul 
and Britain from their ravages. The command of this fleet 
was given to Carausius, a native of that country, {i. e. a Me- 
napian,) a man of very low origin, but skilled in navigation,, 
and of approved courage. It was soon discovered that the 
pirates used to pass down the channel unobserved or unmo- 
lested, but that they were apt to be intercepted on their re- 
turn, and that a considerable part of the booty gained from- 
them never found its way into the imperial treasury. Max- 
imian, convinced of the guilt of the admiral, gave orders for 
his death ; but the fleet was devoted to Carausius, and he 
passed with it over to Britain, and, having induced the legion^ 
and the auxiliaries stationed there to declare for him, he 
boldly assumed the purple ; and the emperors, after some 
fruitless attempts to reduce him, were obliged (289) to ac- 
knowledge his rank and title. 

It soon appeared that even two emperors would not suffice 
for the defence of the provinces, and Diocletian resolved to 
associate two other generals in the imperial power. Under 
the title of Caesars, they were to rank beneath the emperors, 
but their power was to be absolute in the parts of the empire 
assigned them. The persons selected were Galerius Max- 
imianus, a native of Dacia named Armentarius, from his 

CONTIN. 25 K K 



290 DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN. [a. D. 296. 

original employment of a herdsman, and Constantius,* a 
grand-nephew in the female line of the emperor Claudius. 
The former was, as might be expected, rude and martial ; 
the latter, though a soldier from his youth, was polished in 
manners, and mild and amiable in temper. Perhaps it was 
in imitation of the policy of Augustus, that Diocletian re- 
quired the Csesars to divorce their wives and marry the 
daughters of himself and his colleague. He bestowed the 
hand of his own daughter Valeria on Galerius, and Theo- 
dora, the stepdaughter of Maximian, became the wife of 
Constantius. For himself Diocletian reserved Thrace, 
Egypt, and the Asiatic provinces, while his CsBsar Galerius 
governed those on the Danube ; Maximian held Italy and 
Africa ; his Csesar Constantius had charge of Spain, Gaul, 
and Britain. 

The power of Carausius, the ruler of this last-named 
island, was now at its height ; by repressing the incursions 
of the Caledonians and the invasions of the Germans, he pre- 
served internal tranquillity; his fleets rode triumphant on 
the ocean, and he still retained Boulogne and its district on 
the continent. But the loss of a rich province was galling 
to the pride and the dignity of the empire, and Constantius 
undertook the task of reducing the British ruler, (292.) By 
running a mole across the harbor of Boulogne, he obliged 
that town and a great part of the usurper's fleet to surrender. 
While he was preparing a fleet for the invasion of the island, 
he received intelligence of the death of Carausius, who was 
assassinated (294) by Allectus, his principal minister. The 
murderer assumed the vacant power and dignity, and more 
than two years elapsed before Constantius had assembled a 
fleet and army sufficient to attempt the recovery of the island. 
At length, (296,) he prepared to invade it in three separate 
places. The first division, under the praetorian prefect As- 
clepiodotus, put to sea on a stormy day, and by the favor 
of a fog having escaped the fleet of Allectus, which lay off 
the Isle of Wight, effected a landing in the West. As soon 
as his troops had debarked, the prefect set fire to his ship- 
ping. Allectus, who had taken his station with a large army 
at London, to await the arrival of Constantius, hastened to 
the West ; but his troops were few and dispirited, and after a 

* He is usually named Chlorus, from his pallid hue, as it would 
appear, though the Panegyrist (v. 19) speaks of his rubor. Tillemont 
says that it is only in the later Greek writers that his name Chlorus 
appears. 



A. D. 296.] PERSIAN WAR. 291 

brief conflict he was defeated and slain.* Constantius, when 
he landed, met with no opposition ; and this noble island vvas 
thus, after a separation of ten years, reunited to the empire. 

Africa and Egypt gave at this time occupation to the two 
emperors. In the former, a man named Julian assumed the 
purple at Carthage, and five confederated Moorish tribes in- 
vaded the province. But, on the appearance of Maximian, 
Julian stabbed himself, and the Moors were easily defeated, 
and forced to abandon their mountain fastnesses. In Egypt, 
one Achilleus had assumed the purple at Alexandria, and 
the Blemmyans were ravaging the valley of the Upper Nile. 
Diocletian sat down with a large army before Alexandria : 
he cut off the aqueducts which supplied it with water, and 
strongly secured his camp against the sallies of the besieged ; 
and after eight months the rebellious city was obliged to sur- 
render at discretion. A severe vengeance was taken, and 
many thousands of the inhabitants were slaughtered; the 
cities of Busiris and Coptos were totally destroyed, and all 
Egypt suffered by sentences of death or exile. To oppose 
an effectual barrier to the incursions of the Blernmyans, the 
emperor induced the Nobetse or Nubians to quit their abodes 
in the deserts, and settle in the country about Syene and the 
Cataracts, which he resigned to them on the condition of 
their guarding that frontier of the empire. While he re- 
mained in Egypt, Diocletian made many wise laws and regu- 
lations, calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of 
the country.! 

A war ensued with Persia, on account of Armenia. We 
have seen that, from the time of Augustus, the Roman em- 
perors had claimed and exercised the right of bestowing the 
investiture of that kingdom. After the defeat, however, of 
Valerian, the Persian monarch, having caused the Armenian 
king Chosroes to be assassinated, had made himself master 
of the country. Tiridates, the infant son of the murdered 
monarch, was saved by his friends, and committed to the care 
of the Roman emperors. He grew up strong, active, dex- 
terous in the use of arms, and undauntedly courageous ; and 

* Compare the invasion of England by William the Norman. 

t Among others, he directed that a strict search should be made " for 
all the ancient books which treated of the admirable art of making gold 
and silver," and committed them to the flames. This is the earliest 
mention of the vain science of alchemy. See Gibbon, [chap, xiii.] 
This folly still prevails in the East. See Eraser's Travels in Koordis- 
tan, &c., for an instance at the present day. 



292 DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMiAN. [a. D. 296-297. 

he won the warm friendship of Licinius, the sworn mate and 
friend of Galerius. At the instance of this last, Diocletian 
declared Tiridates king of Armenia; and as soon as the new 
monarch appeared on the frontiers, (286,) the Armenians, 
weary of the insults and oppression of the Persians, received 
him with transports of joy. The Persian garrisons were 
speedily driven out of the country ; and, as a civil war was 
raging at the time among the Sassanian princes, Tiridates 
was able not only to recover Armenia, but to carry his arms 
into Assyria. When, however, the civil conflict terminated, 
and Narses was acknowledged king of Persia, the whole force 
of the empire was turned against the revolted Armenians, 
and Tiridates was once more obliged to seek the protection 
of the Roman emperors. 

As the language of Narses now became insolent and 
menacing, and prudence and honor alike demanded the 
restoration of Tiridates, Diocletian prepared for war, (296.) 
Fixing his own abode at Antioch, he committed the conduct 
of the war to Galerius, whom he had summoned for the 
purpose from the banks of the Danube. Galerius crossed 
the Euphrates, and entered on the plains of Mesopotamia, 
After some indecisive fighting, the clouds of Persian cavalry 
enveloped his army, which was far inferior in number, on the 
very ground which, more than three centuries before, had wit- 
nessed the defeat and death of Crassus. The Romans sus- 
tained a total overthrow; and Galerius, when he reached 
Antioch, had the mortification to be received with cold aus- 
terity by Diocletian, whose chariot he had to follow on foot, 
in his imperial purple, for the length of a mile. 

A new army, however, was soon formed from the troops 
of Illyricum and the Gothic auxiliaries; and Galerius, at the 
head of 25,000 gallant soldiers, was permitted again to try 
his fortune, (297.) Warned by experience, he now shunned 
the plains, and advanced through the mountains of Armenia. 
In person, attended by only two horsemen, he undertook the 
perilous task of exploring the strength and the dispositions 
of the hostile force. He then made a sudden attack on the 
Persian camp ; the rout of the enemy was instantaneous and 
complete. Narses, who was wounded in the action, fled to 
Media ; the Persian camp, replete with riches, became the 
prey of the victors ; * the monarch's own harem fell into the 

* A Roman soldier, it is said, meeting with a leathern bag full of 
pearls, threw away the latter, of which he could not conceive the use, 



A. D. 303.] PERSIAN WAR. ^93 

hands of the Romans; and rude as was the nature of Gale- 
rius, his treatment of the royal ladies equalled that of Alex- 
ander the Great, on a similar occasion. Diocletian, when 
he heard of this great victory, set out from Antioch, and met 
the now elated Galerius at Nisibis. Here they were soon 
waited on by Apharban, a person high in the confidence of 
the Persian monarch, with proposals for a treaty of peace. 
After an interview with the emperors, the Persian was dis- 
missed with an assurance that Narses should speedily be 
informed of the terms on which peace might be obtained. 
The secretary, Sicorius Probus, accordingly soon after 
appeared in the Persian camp, and peace was concluded on 
the following conditions: All the northern Mesopotamia 
was to be resigned to the Romans, and the River Aboras* 
was to form the boundary of the two empires in that country ; 
five provinces beyond the Tigris t were also to be ceded to 
the Romans ; Tiridates was to be restored, and his dominions 
augmented; the kings of Iberia to be nominated by the 
Roman emperors. 

The empire was now externally at rest ; the revolted prov- 
inces had been recovered, and the frontiers extended ; Dio- 
cletian, therefore, took the occasion of the commencement 
of the twentieth year of his reign (303) for celebrating a 
triumph for the victories obtained by his arms and under his 
auspices. For this purpose, he repaired to Rome, which he 
had not yet honored with his presence, and he and Maximian 
triumphed jointly, (Nov. 20,) for Africa, Egypt, Britain, and 
other countries, but more especially for Persia. The cere- 
mony displayed the usual pomp and magnificence; one cir- 
cumstance, unknown at the time, distinguished it from all 
others — it was the last real triumph that Rome was to 
witness. 

The importance of the eternal city had suffered a serious 
diminution by the altered circumstances of the empire, which 
demanded the presence of the sovereigns nearer to the 
frontiers. The senate lost the consideration which it had 
heretofore enjoyed ; the once formidable praetorian guards 
were greatly reduced in number and influence ; they ceased 

and kept the bag. Am. Marc. xxii. 4. The same story is told of one of 
the followers of the first Khalifs ; but the Arab previously tried to chew 
the pearls, taking them for grains of millet. 

* This river rose near the Tigris, ran by Singara, and entered the 
Euphrates at Circesium. 

t Namely, Zabdicene, Arzinene, Corduene, Moxoene, and Intiline. 
25* 



294 DIOCLETIAN, MAXIMIAN. [a. D. 304-305. 

to be the protectors of the imperial person, their place as 
such being occupied by two legions of the army of Illyricum, 
which were named Jovians and Herculians, from the titles 
of the emperors. 

The stay of Diocletian, in this his first and last visit to 
the capital of the empire, did not exceed two months. The 
freedom and familiarity of the populace was harsh and un- 
pleasant to his ear, accustomed to the submissive adulation 
of Greeks and Orientals; motives of policy may also have 
concurred to give him a distaste for Rome. He quitted that 
capital, therefore, in the midst of the winter, and proceeded 
through Illyricum to the East. The fatigue of the journey 
and the severity of the weather brought on a lingering ill- 
ness. He was obliged to travel by short stages, and mostly 
in a close litter, and he did not reach Nicomedia till toward 
the end of the summer, (304.) His illness had then become 
serious ; and it was not till the March of the following year 
(305) that he was able to appear in public. During his long 
confinement, he had reflected on the incompatibility of the 
cares of empire with the attention and indulgence which 
his advanced age and declining health demanded; and he 
adopted the resolution of resigning his imperial power, and 
retiring into private life. He communicated his intention 
to Maximian ; and, however adverse that restless emperor 
might be to parting with his power, he had been too long in 
the habit of submitting implicitly to the dictates of his wiser 
colleague to refuse compliance. On the same day, (May 1,) 
as had been previously arranged, both the emperors, the one 
at Nicomedia, the other at Milan, performed the ceremony 
of their abdication, and the Ca3sars Galerius and Constantius 
became emperors in their stead.* Diocletian retired to his 
native province of Dalmatia, where, in the neighborhood of 
the city of Salona, he built a magnificent palace, and em- 
ployed his hours in gardening and planting.! Maximian 
fixed his abode at a villa in Lucania, but we are not informed 
how he passed his days. 

The abdication of Diocletian is the earliest instance which 

* If we may credit the author of the work De Mortihus PersecvZo- 
rum, Galerius forced Diocletian to resign. 

t Diocletian survived his abdication about eight years. He died in 
313. When urged by the instances of Maximian and Galerius to re- 
sume his power, he replied, " I wish you could see the potherbs plant- 
ed by my own hands at Salona, and you would surely never think 
that power should be resumed." 



A. D. 305.] RESIGNATION OF EMPERORS, 295 

history records of the voluntary relinquishment of supreme 
power. It is the only one to be found in the ancient world ; 
but examples, though rare, occur in modern times. That 
of the emperor Charles V. will present itself to the minds of 
most readers ; but that monarch's abdication was the result 
of disappointed ambition, and his leisure was less nobly oc- 
cupied than that of the Roman emperor. The Turkish 
sultan Moorad II. twice quitted his throne for the enjoy- 
ment of private life ; but he was each time recalled to it by 
the dangers of the state. The Spanish king Philip V. also 
abandoned the pomp of royalty for the practice of devotion ; 
but the death of his son and successor obliged him to re- 
sume the sceptre. Devotion and other causes had, in ear- 
lier times, produced resignations among the princes of the 
states founded on the ruins of the Roman empire. 

It is rather remarkable that a prince like Diocletian, born 
in the humbler walks of life, and trained up in arms, should 
have been the introducer of Oriental usages into the palace 
of the Roman emperors. But he seems to have been actua- 
ted by policy rather than pride or vanity ; he conceived that 
investing the emperor with the splendor of apparel, and 
rendering him difficult of access, would make him more 
venerable in the eyes of the multitude, and induce a more 
absolute submission to his will. He and his colleague, 
therefore, assumed the diadem, which ornament distin- 
guished them from the Csesars ; the purple robes of the em- 
perors were of silk and gold, and their shoes were adorned 
with precious stones. Numerous officers attended at the 
palace, and the care of the interior apartments was com- 
mitted to eunuchs. When any one appeared before the 
emperor, he was required to fall prostrate and worship him 
after the fashion of the East. This display of imperial 
pomp, and the maintenance of four separate courts, caused 
an enormous increase of taxation, and consequent oppression 
of the people. We shall presently explain the whole of the 
altered imperial system more at length. 

Toward the end of the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, 
the last and greatest persecution of the Christian church 
commenced. Its origin was as follows : 

Christianity, as has been already observed, was now most 
widely spread, and Christians were to be found in all the 
ranks and conditions of society. Diocletian, though he 
himself adhered to the ancient faith, was tolerant, if not 



296 BIOCLETIAN, MAXIMIAN. [a. D. 302. 

even favorable to the new religion, which his wife and 
daughter are said to have secretly embraced, and which was 
openly professed by the imperial eunuchs Lucianus, Doro- 
theus, Gorgonius, and Andreas, and by most of the principal 
officers of the palace. The Christian bishops were treated 
with respect, and new and more stately churches were 
rising in all the cities of the empire. But amid this seem- 
ing prosperity, a close observer might discern the distant 
approach of a tempest. Maximian and Galerius were both 
inveterately hostile to the Christian faith, while the zeal and 
jealousy of the polytheists were alarmed at its rapid progress. 
They clung more closely to the religion of their ancestors 
when they saw it menaced with destruction, and the new 
philosophy, which had based itself on the ancient supersti- 
tion, inspired its professors with hatred for its enemies and 
opponents. The philosophers saw plainly that by reasoning 
and eloquence alone its sinking cause could not be main- 
tained, and that its only resource was the employment of 
violent measures. We therefore find that the philosophers 
were the directors of the subsequent persecution, and the 
chief suggestors of the means for giving it efficacy. 

Galerius passed the winter after the conclusion of the 
Persian war at Nicomedia ; and during that period he had 
frequent conferences with Diocletian on the subject of Chris- 
tianity. He represented to the emperor how utterly incom- 
patible it was with the ancient institutions of the state, 
forming, as it did, an empire within the empire, all whose 
members were regularly organized, and ready to act at any 
time as one man. Diocletian confessed that he saw the 
danger, and agreed to exclude the Christians from offices in 
the army and the palace; but he expressed his disinclination 
to shed their blood, as not merely cruel, but impolitic. Ga- 
lerius, not content, prevailed on him to summon a council 
of the principal civil and military officers, to take the impor- 
tant matter into consideration ; and the council, when it 
met, seconded the views of the Ctesar, into whose hands the 
reins of power were likely soon to fall. Diocletian, we may 
suppose, yielded to the arguments that were employed, as a 
man of superior mind does when he gives way to his inferi- 
ors in intellect, foreseeing the consequences, but unable to 
prevent them. A system of persecution was therefore pro- 
jected, and preparations were made for carrying it into 
effect. 



A. D. 303.] PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH. 397 

From a motive probably of superstition, the day of the 
Terminalia, or festival of Terminus, the god of boundaries, 
(Feb. 23,) was fixed for that of commencing to set limits to 
the inroads made on the ancient faith of Rome. At davrn 
on that day, (303,) the praetorian prefect, accompanied by 
some of the higher officers of the army and the revenue, pro- 
ceeded to the principal church of Nicomedia. The doors 
were broken open, the holy book? were taken out and com- 
mitted to the flames, and the sacred edifice was demolished. 
Next day, (24th,) an edict was published, ordering the 
demolition of all the churches throughout the empire, and 
forbidding any secret religious assemblies to be held ; the 
bishops and presbyters were commanded to deliver up 
the sacred books to the magistrates, by whom they were to 
be burnt, and all the property of the church was declared to 
be confiscate. Christians were pronounced incapable of 
holding any office, and Christian slaves were excluded from 
the boon of manumission. The judges might determine any 
action brought against a Christian, but no legal remedy was 
granted to the Christian when the object of injury. The 
whole Christian body was thus degraded, robbed of its pub- 
lic property, and put without the pale of the law ; but the 
persecution still stopped short of blood. 

This edict was, in the usual manner, exposed to public 
view. But it had scarcely been displayed, when a zealous 
Christian tore it down, uttering invectives against its au- 
thors. His offence was treason ; and he expiated it with his 
life, being burnt at a slow fire. In the course of the fol- 
lowing fortnight, flames burst out twice in the palace ; and, 
as it was clear that they were not accidental, they were 
ascribed to the vengeance of the Christians, by whose wri- 
ters the guilt is transferred to Galerius, who thus, they say, 
sought to irritate Diocletian against them. Whatever was 
the truth, the effect which Galerius desired was produced on 
the emperor's mind. The imperial eunuchs were tortured 
and put to death with circumstances of the utmost barbarity. 
Anthemus, the bishop of Nicomedia, was beheaded, and 
several of his flock perished at the same time. 

A series of cruel edicts succeeded. By one, the gov- 
ernors of provinces were ordered to cast all the Christian 
ecclesiastics into prison ; by a second, they were enjoined to 
employ every kind of severity in order to make them aban- 
don their superstition, and sacrifice to the gods ; by a third, 

LL 



S98 DIOCLETIAN; MAXIMIAN. [a. D. 304 

(304,) the magistrates were commanded to force all Chris- 
tianSj without distinction of age or sex, to sacrifice to the 
gods, and to employ every kind of torture for that purpose. 
The issuing of this edict was one of the last public acts of 
Diocletian, as his resignation took place in the course of 
the year. 

The efforts of Diocletian and Galerius were seconded by 
Maximian, who hated the Christians; and the persecution 
raged in Italy and Africa as in the East; but the mild Con- 
stantius protected the persons of his Christian subjects, 
though he found it necessary to consent to the demolition 
of their churches. The entire duration of the persecution 
was ten years, (303—313 ;) it was more or less violent in 
different times and places, and according to the characters 
and political circumstances of the princes. On the part of 
the persecutors, every refinement of barbarity was practised ; 
on that of the persecuted, there was an abundant display of 
zeal and courage, though in many cases adulterated with 
fanaticism. At the same time, there were many, even bish- 
ops and presbyters, who gained the opprobrious title of Tra- 
ditors, by delivering the sacred Scriptures into the hands of 
the heathen. From the vague language employed by the 
ecclesiastical writers, it is difficult to form any clear idea of 
the number of those who suffered martyrdom in the space of 
these ten years. Gibbon estimates it at two thousand per- 
sons ; but his prejudices would lead him to put it at the 
lowest possible amount. Supposing it, however, to be five, 
or even ten times that number, it would still be far short of 
that of the victims in any one of the religious massacres 
perpetrated by the church of Rome. 



A. D. 304-306.] GALERIUS, CONSTANTIUS. 299 



CHAPTER II* 

GALERIUS, CONSTANTIUS, SEVERUS, MAX- 
ENTIUS, MAXIMIAN, LICINIUS, MAXIMIN, 
CONSTANTINE. 

A.U. 1057—1090. A.D. 304—337. 

THE EMPERORS AND C^SARS. CONSTANTINE. MAXENTIUS. 

FATE OF MAXIMIAN. WAR BETWEEN CONSTANTINE AND 

MAXENTIUS. CONSTANTINE AND LICINIUS. CONSTAN- 
TINE SOLE EMPEROR. CONSTANTINOPLE FOUNDED. HIE- 
RARCHY OF THE STATE. THE ARMY. THE GREAT OFFI- 
CERS. CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE. DEATHS OF CRIS- 

PUS AND FAUSTA. THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. WAR WITH 

THE GOTHS. DEATH AND CHARACTER OF CONSTANTINE. 

Galerius and Constantius. 
A. u. 1058—1059. A. D. 305—306. 

The task of appointing Ca3sars, in the place of himself 
and Constantius, was assumed by the haughty Galerius. For 
his own associate he selected his nephew Daza or Maximin, 
and an Illyrian, named Severus, was appointed to the same 
dignity under Constantius ; the government of Egypt and 
Syria was committed to Maximin ; that of Italy and Africa, 
to Severus. 

Little more than a year elapsed after the retirement of 
Diocletian, when events occurred which proved the futility 
of his plan for governing the Roman world by emperors, 
with subordinate Csesars. The first took place on the occa- 
sion of the death of Constantius, who expired at York, on 
the 25th of July, 306. According to the rule established 
by Diocletian, Severus should have become the Augustus, 
and a new Cflesar have been appointed ; but the soldiers of 
the army of Britain insisted that the eldest son of the de- 
ceased emperor should succeed to his rank and power. This 
son was Constantine, afterwards so renowned. His mother, 

* Authorities : Zosimus, the Epitomators and Panegyrists, Lactan- 
tius, Eusebius, and the Ecclesiastical Historians. 



GALERIUS, CONSTANTINE, ETC. [a. D. 306. 

named Helena, was the daughter of an innkeeper ; and Con- 
stantius had been obliored to divorce her on the occasion of 
his elevation to the rank of Caesar. Constantine, who was 
then about eighteen years of age, engaged in the service of 
Diocletian, and distinguished himself in the Egyptian and 
Persian wars. He rose to high rank in the army ; his ap- 
pearance, manners, and qualities were such as were sure to 
win the favor of the people and the soldiery, and Gale- 
rius, when emperor, marked him out as the object of his 
jealousy. Alarmed at the dangers to which he knew him 
to be exposed, Constantius earnestly besought of Galerius to 
allow his son to repair to him. After many delays, that em- 
peror gave a reluctant consent ; and Constantine, fearful of 
treachery, travelled with the utmost speed, and joined his 
father as he was embarking for Britain. There can be no 
doubt that the succession was not the mere spontaneous 
offer of the soldiery, and that Constantine had employed the 
usual artifices, and made the usual promises, on this occasion ; 
for, in fact, his only safety now lay in empire. He, howev- 
er, affected a decent degree of reluctance; and he wrote to 
Galerius, excusing himself for what had occurred. The first 
emotions of the emperor were those of surprise and fury ; 
but, on calm reflection, he saw the danger of a contest with 
the hardy legions of the West, and he consented to allow 
Constantine a share of the imperial power, giving him, how- 
ever, only the humbler title of Caesar, while he conferred the 
vacant dignity of Augustus on Severus. Satisfied with the 
substance of power, Constantine was careless of titles ; he de- 
voted himself to the improvement of his dominions, and he 
discharged the duties of an aflfectionate brother to his six 
half-brothers and sisters, whom his father, when dying, had 
committed to his care. 



Galerius, Constantine, Maxentius, Licinius* 

A. u. 1059—1066. A. D. 306—313. 

The next event which proved the instability of the new 
form of government, commenced with an insurrection at 
Rome. From the time of the conquest of Macedonia, a 
period of nearly five centuries, the people of Rome had been 

* We only mention here the principal emperors. 



A.D. 307.] GALERIUS, CONSTANTINE, ETC. 301 

free from all direct taxes ; but now, in conformity with the 
new principles of government, Galerius prepared to impose a 
uniform property and capitation tax on the whole empire ; 
and, as no exemptions were to be allowed, the officers of the 
revenue began to make a list of the property and persons of 
the inhabitants of the capital. At the same time, directions 
were given for the removal of the praetorian cohorts from the 
city, and for the demolition of their camp. The pride of 
the soldiers, the self-interest of the citizens, caused them to 
unite in the determination of liberating Italy, and electing a 
native emperor. They cast their eyes on Maxentius, the 
son of Maximian, and son-in-law of Galerius, a young man 
of neither talents nor virtue, who was then residing in a villa 
near the city. He readily yielded to their desires ; the pre- 
fect of the city, and a few other officers, were massacred, 
and Maxentius was invested with the purple. Severus, who 
was at Milan, prepared to march against the rebels, who, on 
their part, invited Maximian to quit his retreat, and give 
theai the advantage of his name and his experience ; and the 
old emperor, who may have had a greater share in the pre- 
vious transactions than is commonly supposed, lost no time 
in repairing to Rome. He there reassumed the purple, and. 
his influence and authority caused numerous defections to^ 
take place in the army of Severus, when that prince appeared 
before the walls of the city. Severus found it, therefore, 
necessary to retire, and to shut himself up in Ravenna, 
where, as the works were strong, and his fleet commanded 
the sea, he might easily have maintained himself till Galerius 
should come to his relief Deceived, however, by the arti- 
fices of Maximian, he laid down his dignity, and surrendered 
himself on the promise of his life being secured. He was at 
first treated with respect; but when Galerius invaded Italy, 
the captive emperor was put to death. 

Constantine, at the head of the Gallic legions, had it evi- 
dently in his power to confirm or to overthrow the dominion 
of the new emperors. To win him over, Maximian under- 
took a journey to Gaul, and, by giving him in marriage his 
daughter Fausta, and conferring on him the dignity of Au- 
gustus, he secured his neutrality, if not his active coopera- 
tion. Galerius soon appeared in Italy, at the head of the 
troops of Illyricum and the East, and advanced to Narni, 
within sixty miles of Rome, whence he sent two of his prin- 
cipal officers to try to induce Maxentius to trust to his gen- 
erosity, rather than to risk the hazard of war. His offers 

CONTIN. 26 



302 GALERIUS, CONST ANTINEj ETC. [a. D. 307-31 1. 

were spurned at ; and so large a number of his men were 
gained over by Maximian, that he was obliged to make a 
rapid retreat, and his troops, on their route, devastated the 
country in the most merciless manner. Some time after, 
(307,) Galerius conferred the dignity of Augustus on his 
early and constant friend Licinius ; and, when the account 
of this elevation reached Maximin, he caused himself to be 
saluted emperor by his troops. Galerius found it necessary 
to acquiesce in his assumption, and the Roman world thus 
was ruled by six emperors at the same time. A preeminence 
was, however, tacitly conceded to Maximian and Galerius 
by their respective coemperors. 

Maximian and his son were too opposite in character to 
remain long at unity. One or other, it was found, must re- 
sign the supreme power in Italy ; and, the praetorian guards 
having decided in favor of Maxentius, under whom they ex- 
pected to enjoy more license, the aged emperor was obliged 
to seek a refuge with his son-in-law in Gaul. By Constan- 
tine he was received with every mark of respect; and, as 
the restless temper of the Franks required his own frequent 
presence on the Lower Rhine, in the periods of his absence, 
he committed the government of southern Gaul to his father- 
in-law. The abode of Maximian was at the palace of Aries ; 
and, when one time (310) a report was spread of the death 
of Constantine, who was carrying on war beyond the Rhine, 
the restless old man seized the royal treasures and distributed 
them among the soldiers, in the hope of being saluted by 
them sole emperor. As soon as intelligence of his proceed- 
ings reached Constantine, he made a rapid march from the 
Rhine to Chalons, on the Saone, embarked his troops on 
that river, and thence entering the Rhone at Lyons, arrived 
at Aries before his departure from the Rhine was known. 
Maximian escaped from that city, and took refuge at Mar- 
seilles : he was pursued thither by Constantine, to whom he 
was delivered up by the garrison ; and he was either put to 
death or ordered to terminate his life by his own hand.* 

Galerius did not long survive Maximian. He died the 
following year, (311,) of the same odious disease as the great 

* Vict. Epit. xl. 5. Eutrop. x. 4. According to Lactantius, (De 
M. P. 29, 30,) his life was spared on this occasion ; but, having after- 
wards conspired against Constantine, and killed a chamberlain in his 
stead, he was secretly strangled. Eumenius, however, says,^ (Pane- 
gyr. ix. 20,) " sibi imputat quisquis uti noluit beneficio tuo [Constan- 
tine] nee se dignum vita judicavit cum per te liceat ut viveret," 



A. D. 312.] CIVIL WAR. 303 

dictator Sulla. Licinius and Maximin immediately prepared 
to decide by arms the possession of his dominions; but they 
were finally induced to accommodate their dispute by treaty, 
and divide the disputed territories, and the Hellespont and 
Bosporus became the boundary of their respective domin- 
ions. A sense of common interest soon united Licinius and 
Constantine, and a secret alliance was formed between Maxi- 
min and Maxentius. 

The contrast between the administration of Constantine 
and that of Maxentius was of the most striking character. 
In Gaul and Britain justice was carefully administered, op- 
pressive taxes were abolished or lightened, the inroads of the 
barbarians were checked. In Italy and Africa the wealthy 
were plundered or put to death, the virtue of their wives and 
daughters was exposed to the lust of a brutal tyrant, the 
soldiers were indulged in every species of license. During 
six years Rome groaned beneath the tyranny of its emperor, 
when at length (312) his own folly gave occasion to its de- 
liverance. 

Though Maximian had been driven from Italy by his un- 
worthy son, his death was made the occasion of a display of 
filial piety, and the statues of Constantine in Italy and Africa 
were cast down by the orders of Maxentius. Constantine, 
who was adverse to war, tried the effect of negotiation ; but 
finding that Maxentius, who openly claimed the empire of 
the West, had assembled a large army for the invasion of 
Gaul, he resolved to anticipate him and enter Italy, whither 
he was secretly invited by the senate and people of Rome. 
At the head of about 40,000 veteran troops, he crossed the 
Alps* and descended into the plain of Piedmont, (312.) The 
troops of Maxentius numbered 170,000 foot and 18,000 horse; 
but they were chiefly raw levies, made in Africa, Italy, and 
Sicily, and Maxentius himself was utterly destitute of mili- 
tary talent or experience. The town of Susa, (Segusium,) 
at the foot of the Alps, closed its gates against Constantine ; 
but it was taken by assault, and the greater part of the gar- 
rison slaughtered. On the plain of Turin a strong division 
of the army of Maxentius opposed the invaders. Its strength 
consisted in a large body of cavalry arrayed in full armor, 
after the manner of the Persians.! But the force of this 

* The Cottian Alps, or Mount Cenis. 

t Called by the Greeks Cataphracts, by the Latins Clibanarians, 
from the Persian word. They resembled the heavy cavalry of the 
middle ages, both horse and man being covered with armor. 



304 GALERIUS, CONSTANTINE, ETC. [a. D. 312. 

formidable mass was rendered of no avail by the skill of 
Constantine, who made his troops break their line and allow 
it to pass through when it charged, and then close and at- 
tack it when broken and divided. The troops of Maxentius 
soon turned and fled; and as the gates of Turin were closed 
against them, few of them escaped the sword of the victors. 
Constantine proceeded without delay to Milan ; and nearly 
all Italy north of the Po declared for his cause. 

A brave and skilful officer, named Ruricius Pompeianus, 
commanded at Verona for Maxentius. As Constantine was 
advancing against that city, he was encountered, near Bres- 
cia, by a large bx)dy of cavalry, detached from the army 
at Verona ; but he drove it back with loss, and then sat down 
before the city. Ruricius, having made all the dispositions 
necessary for defence, secretly quitted the town, and, having 
with great rapidity collected a sufficient force, advanced to 
its relief Constantine drew out his army to give him battle. 
The engagement commenced in the evening, and was con- 
tinued through the night Victory finally declared for the 
Gallic legions; Ruricius was among the slain, and Verona 
surrendered at discretion. After a short stay at that city, 
Constantine directed his march for Rome. At a place 
named Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from the city, close by 
the memorable Cremera, he found (Oct. 28) the army of 
Maxentius prepared to give him battle. In person, at the 
head of his Gallic horse, he charged the cavalry of the ene- 
my and routed it ; the greater part of the infantry then turned 
and fled, but the brave prsetorian cohorts fought and fell 
where they stood. In the flight, Maxentius fell from the 
Mulvian bridge into the Tiber, and was drowned. His body 
was found next day, and his head preceded the entrance of 
Constantine into the city. 

Constantine used his victory with sufficient moderation. 
The children of Maxentius and his most distinguished ad- 
herents were put to death ; but the demand of the people for 
a greater number of victims was steadily rejected. Inform- 
ers were punished; the exiles were recalled and restored to 
their estates ; a general amnesty was passed ; the senate was 
treated with respect and consideration. At the same time, 
Constantine carried into effect the very measures, the appre- 
hension of which had raised Maxentius to empire. The 
praetorian guards were broken and dispersed among the 
legions on the frontiers, gmd their fortified camp was demol- 
ished. The property tax, which Galerius had projected, and 



A.D. 313.] CONSTANTINE, LICINIUS. 305 

which Maxentius had levied, under the odious name of a 
free-gift, was made perpetual on the senatorian order, whose 
number, apparently for this very purpose, was considerably 
augmented. 



Constantine and Licinius. 
A.u. 1066—1076. A.D. 313—323. 

Constantine remained only two months at Rome, being 
obliged to set out on his return for Gaul, where the Franks 
had renewed their incursions. On his way, he celebrated at 
Milan (313) the nuptials of his sister Constantia with Licin- 
ius, to whom he had betrothed her previous to the war with 
Maxentius. Immediately after the nuptial festival, the two 
emperors had to put themselves at the head of their troops ; 
the one to chastise the Germans, and the other to oppose 
Maximin, who had crossed the Bosporus, and taken the cities 
of Byzantium and Heraclea. When Licinius arrived, with 
30,000 Illyrian veterans, within eighteen miles of this last 
town, he found his rival supported by 70,000 men of the dis- 
ciplined troops of the East. Each having vainly tried to 
seduce the soldiers of the other, they led their forces out to 
battle, (April 30.) The advantage was at first on the side of 
numbers ; but the European troops, directed by the military 
skill of their leader, soon asserted their wonted superiority, 
and a decisive victory crowned their efforts. Maximin fled 
with the utmost rapidity, never halting till he reached Nico- 
media, distant a hundred and sixty miles from the field of 
battle. He was on his way to Egypt about three months 
after ; when at Tarsus, he despaired of his affairs, and took 
poison, of which he died after much suffering. Licinius 
used his victory with barbarity. Resolved to remove all pos- 
sibility of rival claims to the empire of the East, he not only 
put to death the son and daughter of Maximin, the former 
of whom was only eight, the latter only seven years of age, 
but he involved in their fate Severianus, the son of the late 
emperor Severus, and Candidianus, the natural son of his 
friend and benefactor Galerius. 

But his treatment of the wife and daughter of Diocletian 
was still more conclusive of the innate inhumanity of his 
character. After the death of Galerius, Maximin had sought 
the hand of Valeria. Meeting with a firm refusal, the tyrant 

26 * M M 



306 CONST ANTINE, LICINIUS. [a. D. 314. 

gave a loose to his rage ; he confiscated her property ; he put 
to the torture her eunuchs and servants ; he executed some 
of her female friends, on false charges of adultery; and he 
condemned herself and her mother, Prisca, to exile in a Syr- 
ian village. Diocletian sought for permission for them to 
join him at Salona ; but he was now powerless, and his appli- 
cation met with contemptuous neglect. On the death of 
Maximin, the two royal ladies proceeded in disguise to the 
court of Licinius. They were at first treated with kindness; 
but the execution of her adopted son, Candidianus, who had 
accompanied her thither, soon convinced Valeria that the 
tyrant only was changed, and she and her mother fled in a 
plebeian habit. After wandering about for fifteen months, 
they were discovered at Thessalonica, and were instantly 
beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the sea. 

The number of the emperors was now reduced to two ; 
and it might be supposed that, connected as they had been, 
both publicly and privately, they would remain at unity. 
Yet the very year after their becoming brothers-in-law, (314,) 
we find them drawing the sword against each other. The oc- 
casion was as follows : Constantine gave one of his sisters in 
marriage to a man of rank named Bassianus, whom he raised, 
with Licinius's consent, to the dignity of a Caesar. Italy 
appears to have been destined for the new Csesar ; but, some 
delay occurring in the appointment, Licinius secretly induced 
him to believe that Constantine was merely making a tool of 
liim, and encouraged him to engage in a conspiracy against 
his benefactor. The plot was, however, speedily discovered; 
Bassianus was put to death; and as Licinius refused to give 
up one of the principal conspirators, who had fled to him, 
and as the statues of Constantine, in the town of JEmona, 
on the frontiers of Italy, had been thrown down, the empe- 
ror of the West entered Illyricura at the head of 20,000 
men. Licinius, with 35,000 men, advanced to oppose him. 
The armies encountered (Oct. 8) near Cibalis on the Save, 
about fifty miles fi-om Sirmium. The engagement lasted 
from morning till night, when Licinius retired with a loss of 
20,000 men. He hastened to Sirmium to secure his family 
and treasures, and then, breaking down the bridge over the 
Save at that town, he proceeded to Thrace to collect a new 
army; and he conferred the title of Csesar on Valens, the 
general of the Illyrian frontier. Constantine made no delay 
in following him, and the emperors again measured their 
strength on the plain of Mardia in Thrace. The battle 



A. D. 314-323.] CIVIL WAR. 307 

Jasted all through the day, and was terminated by the night. 
The victory remained with Constantine, but with so much 
loss as inclined him to listen to proposals for peace. He 
made the deposition of Valens an absolute condition ; and, 
that luckless prince being deprived of his purple and his 
life, a treaty was concluded which gave Pannonia, Dalmatia, 
Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, to the Western empire. It 
was also agreed that two of the sons of the Western empe- 
ror, and the one son of the Eastern monarch, should be 
raised to the rank of Caesars. 

Peace now continued for above eight years. During that 
time, Constantine was engaged either in beneficial legislation 
or in defending the frontiers of his empire. His principal 
war, which he conducted in person, was against the Goths, 
who (321) invaded the countries south of the Danube. He 
forced them to purchase a retreat by the surrender of their 
booty and prisoners ; and then, repairing the bridge of Tra- 
jan, he crossed the river, and carried the war into their own 
country. No longer satisfied with the possession of the 
larger portion of the Roman empire, he now aimed at wrest- 
ing the remainder from Licinius. His preparations for war 
did not escape the observation of that emperor, who forth- 
with (323) assembled troops and shipping from all parts of 
his dominions. An army of 150,000 foot and 15,000 horse 
covered the plains of Hadrianople, and a fleet of three 
hundred and fifty triremes occupied the Hellespont. The 
troops of Constantine (120,000 horse and foot) rendezvoused 
at Thessalonica ; his fleet, which numbered only two hun- 
dred small vessels, was assembled in the port of the Piraeus. 
Licinius, who occupied a strong camp on a hill over Hadri- 
anople, did not oppose the passage of the Hebrus by the 
enemy. The accounts of the engagement which ensued 
(July 3) are scanty and confused ; but it would appear that 
the veteran troops of the West, evincing their wonted supe- 
riority, won their way up the hill, and routed the forces of 
the East, slaying 34,000 men, and taking their fortified 
camp. Constantine, who displayed the valor of a soldier 
and the conduct of a general, received a wound in the 
thigh : Licinius fled, and shut himself up in Byzantium, 
whither he was speedily followed by his victorious rival. 

Constantine directed that his fleet, which was commanded 
by his eldest son, the CsBsar Crispus, should advance and 
force the passage of the Hellespont. His admirals selected 
eighty of their best ships for the purpose : the opposite 



308 CONSTANTINEj LICINIUS. [a. D. 323. 

admiral, Amandiis, opposed them with two hundred. As 
the narrow sea did not afford sufficient space for the evolu- 
tions of so large a number, the advantage, when night 
terminated the conflict, was on the side of Constantine. 
Next day, Amandus sailed over from the coast of Asia, the 
wind blowing strongly from the north ; but, finding the 
enemy, who lay at Eloeus, reenforced by thirty ships, he 
hesitated to attack. About noon, the wind changed, and 
blew so violently from the south, that it drove on the rocks 
or the shore a hundred and thirty ships of the fleet of 
Licinius, and caused a loss of 5,000 men. Amandus fled 
with only four ships ; and, the Hellespont being now open, 
provisions and supplies of all kinds flowed into the camp of 
Constantine before Byzantium, and Licinius, deeming that 
city no longer tenable, passed over with his friends and 
his treasures to Chalcedon. He there conferred the fatal 
dignity of Caesar on Martianus, the principal officer of his 
palace, and sent him to Lampsacus, to guard the passage of 
the Hellespont. He himself speedily assembled another ar- 
my, to oppose the landing of Constantine. That able prince, 
however, conveyed over a sufficient force in boats, and landed 
about two hundred stades (twenty-five miles) above Chalce- 
don. Licinius recalled Martianus with his troops, and an 
engagement was fought (Sept. 18) on the heights of Chry- 
sopolis, [Scutari,) which ended in the total defeat of Licinius, 
with a loss of 25,000 men. He fled to Nicomedia ; nego- 
tiations were entered into ; and Constantine, having given 
the assurance of his solemn oath to his sister for the security 
of her husband's life, Licinius laid his purple down at his 
feet, styling him his king and master. He was admitted to 
the royal table, and was then sent to Thessalonica, which 
was fixed on as the place of his residence ; Martianus was 
put to death, and two years after, on the charge of a con- 
spiracy, Licinius was strangled, in violation of the emperor's 
most solemn engagement. 



Constantine. 

A. u. 1076—1090. A. D. 323—337. 

The Roman empire was thus, after thirty-four years of 
divided dominion, reunited under one head. Two most im- 
portant changes immediately succeeded, namely, the founda- 



FOUNDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 309 

tion of a new capital, and the public establishment of 
Christianity as the religion of the state ; the form of govern- 
ment commenced by Diocletian was also completed. Of 
these we shall now proceed to treat. 

Rome, as we have seen, had long ceased to be an imperial 
residence. It lay too remote from the banks of the Dan- 
ube and Euphrates, where the presence of the emperor was 
most frequently required : Diocletian had therefore fixed his 
abode in Nicomedia ; but the ambition of being the founder 
of a capital which should bear his own name, and the supe- 
rior advantages of the site of Byzantium, determined Con- 
stantine to raise an imperial city on the peninsula occupied 
by that town ; and in the year following that of the over- 
throw of Licinius, (324,) he laid the foundation of Con- 
stantinople, as he named it from himself — a city which still 
exists, and in magnitude and population yields to few in 
Europe, while in beauty and advantage of situation it is 
rivalled by none. 

It is not necessary that we should describe the situation 
of this celebrated city, which, like Rome, built on seven 
hills, grew up from the condition of a colony, and became 
the capital of empire. In the space of ten years, the nu- 
merous workmen employed, by the wealth of the imperial 
treasury, covered the ground marked out by the founder 
with all the edifices, sacred, profane, and military, required 
by a magnificent capital ; and the new city was speedily 
filled with a numerous population. In imitation of Rome, 
it was divided into fourteen regions or wards, and the corn 
of Egypt was distributed among its poorer citizens; its Hip- 
podrome emulated the Circus, and statues of marble and 
bronze were brought from all parts to adorn it. The supe- 
rior rank of the ancient capital, however, was still acknowl- 
edged, and the new city was styled its colony. 

The civil and military administration of the empire had, 
as may have been observed, been gradually undergoing a 
change, and approximating to that of the East. That 
change was further accelerated by the removal of the seat 
of government to the new capital, and by the establishment 
of the prevalent corrupted form of Christianity as the religion 
of the state. The aspect of the empire under Constantine 
and his successors may be sketched as follows: * 

* We here shall follow Gibbon, who derived his materials from the 
Theodosian Code and the J^otitia Imperii. 



310 CONSTANTINE. 

The court and palace were filled with officers, among 
whom the eunuchs were conspicuous; they were arranged 
in orders, the whole forming a sacred hierarchy, as it was 
often styled. All the various ranks were regulated with 
the most accurate minuteness, and the numerous titles and 
modes of address which have been the models of those of 
modern Europe, were then devised : such were. Your Emi- 
nence, Your Excellency , Your illustrious and magnijicent 
Highness. The great officers had various badges and em- 
blems of their dignities, and were known by their peculiar 
habits. The whole body of the higher officers and magis- 
trates were divided into three classes ; the first, which con- 
tained the very highest, being named the Illustrious, the 
second the Notable, {Spectabiles,) and the third the Most 
Distinguished, ( Clarissimi.)*' 

The title of Patrician, which had long been out of use, 
was revived by Constantine, but merely as a mark of per- 
sonal distinction. The dignity was not hereditary, and 
these new nobles bore no more resemblance to the patricians 
of ancient Rome than the actual peers of France do to the 
old noblesse. The patricians yielded in dignity to the con- 
suls alone ; they were superior to all the great officers of 
state, and had constant access to the person of the sovereign, 
whose favorites or ministers they had in general been ori- 
ginally. 

The consulate, now an empty dignity, was conferred by 
the emperor. On new year's day, the appointed consuls 
assumed the ensigns of their dignity at the place which was 
then the imperial residence. They moved in procession, 
attended by the principal officers of the state and army, from 
the palace to the Forum, or market-place : they there took 
their seat on the curule chairs, and manumitted a slave, 
according to ancient usage. Games were celebrated by 
them, or in their name, in the principal cities of the empire ; 
their names were inscribed in the Fasti, and their names 
and portraits were engraved on tablets of ivory, adorned 
with gold, and sent as presents to magistrates and persons 
of rank. They then retired into private life, for they had 
no public duties to discharge. Yet the vain and emp- 
ty honor still continued to be the object of highest am- 
bition. 

* An Italian, at the present day, will commence a letter with Chia- 
rissimo Sisnore. 



OFFICERS OF STATE. 311 

The office of praetorian prefect had, as we have seen, 
gradually risen in importance. The prefect, uniting civil 
and military power, had been, in fact, what the mayor 
of the palace afterwards became in France. The suppres- 
sion of the guards having left him without military command, 
his office now became purely civil. As, by the regulation of 
Diocletian, each prince had his prefect, the number of these 
officers was four, which number was retained by Constantine. 
The prefects were named of the East, of Illyricum, of Gaul, 
and of Italy, each of which districts comprised the provinces 
contained under its title when ruled by the Augusti and the 
CtBsars. They were at the head of the administration of 
justice and the finances ; they had authority over the pro- 
vincial governors; there lay an appeal from all inferior tri- 
bunals to that of the prcetorian prefect ; but his decision was 
final. The city of Rome, and afterwards that of Constanti- 
nople, had its prefect, who was independent of the praetorian 
prefect. This officer, who was first appointed by Augustus, 
had gradually enlarged his power, and he now exercised the 
ordinary authority and functions of the consuls and praetors 
in the city, and a circuit of one hundred miles, and all mu- 
nicipal authority was derived from him. 

Beside these great prefectures, the empire, with respect to 
its civil government, was divided into thirteen great dio- 
ceses,* of which the first was administered by the Count 
{Comes) of the East; the governor of that of Egypt was still 
called the Augustal Prefect ; those of the remaining eleven 
were styled Vicars, or Vice-prefects. The rulers of the 
inferior provinces were in some Proconsuls, in others Con- 
sulars or Correctors, or Presidents. Like their superiors, 
they possessed the administration of justice and of the 
finances. 

The first separation of the civil and military authority of 
which we read, was that made by Augustus in the procon- 
sular provinces. The history of the last two centuries had 
shown the ill effects of their union in the rebellion of so 
many governors against the imperial authority, and Constan- 
tine was resolved to obviate these evils. For this purpose, 
the command of the troops was permanently separated from 
the government of the provinces. Two Masters-general 
(Magistri militum) were instituted ; one for the cavalry, the 
other for the infantry of the imperial array. Subordinate 

* jLoixijOiig. The word is now only used in an ecclesiastical sense. 



312 CONSTANTINE. 

commanders, styled Counts [Comites) and Dukes, (Duces*) 
were placed at the head of the troops in the different prov- 
inces. A gold belt was the mark of their dignity borne by 
these officers. The natural consequence of this division 
of the civil and military power was, that, while mutual jeal- 
ousy prevented the general and the governor from uniting in 
rebellion, it operated to leave the province exposed to the 
ravages of the barbarians ; so that, while it secured the 
emperor, it injured the empire. 

The advantages which had been originally accorded to 
the praetorian guards, were very unwisely extended by Con- 
stantine to a large portion of the army. The troops were 
now distinguished into Palatines and Borderers, [Limitanei ;) 
the former had higher pay and peculiar privileges, and were 
quartered in the cities and toWns of the interior, being only 
required to take the field on occasions of emergency ; while 
the latter, with inferior pay, had the task of guarding the 
frontiers. The legions were increased in number, but con- 
tracted in their dimensions ; and they now bore more resem- 
blance to modern regiments than to the legions of ancient 
Rome.t The difficulty of procuring recruits in the prov- 
inces was nearly insuperable ; though a severe conscription, as 
it may perhaps be termed, was established. Barbarians were 
therefore constantly taken into the service, and even enrolled 
among the Palatines ; and they speedily attained the highest 
military and civil dignities of the empire. 

In the palace, there were seven principal officers, to whom 
the rank of Illustrious was conceded. 1. The Chamberlain, 
(JPrcspositus cuhiculi ;) this was always a favorite eunuch, 
who, beside his care of the imperial apartments, attended 
the emperor on all occasions of state. His influence, it may 
readily be supposed, was considerable. The Counts of the 
wardrobe and of the table were under the jurisdiction of this 
officer. 2. The Master of the Offices was the supreme 
magistrate of the palace. All its officers, civil and military, 
in all parts of the empire, were subject to his jurisdiction, 
and to it alone. He had four Scrinim or secretaries' offices, 
each with its master or chief, and a number of subordinate 
clerks for carrying on the correspondence of the state. Like 
our master-general of the ordnance, he had the charge of all 

* The Comes or companion of the emperor was the higher in rank ; 
the Dux or Duke was merely a military commander. 

t Gibbon, following Pancirolus, estimates the legion at from 1000 
to 1500 men. 



OFFICERS OF STATE. 



3ia 



the arsenals, and control over the workmen employed in the 
manufacture of arms. 3. The duaestor had the task of 
composing orations in the name of the emperor, which hav- 
ing the force of edicts, he gradually came to be regarded as 
the original source of jurisprudence. He answered in some 
sort to the modern chancellor. 4. The Count of the Lar- 
gesses (Largitionum) was at the head of the revenue depart- 
ment, with, of course, a numerous corps of various officers 
under him. 5. The Count of the Private Estate {rei priva- 
tes) had the management of the crown-lands, and the other 
sources of private income to the emperors. 6. 7. The two 
Counts of the Domestics, i. e. household troops, command- 
ed the cavalry and infantry of the body-guards, which con- 
sisted of three thousand five hundred men, divided into seven 
schools or companies of five hundred men each. Two of 
these, the one of horse, the other of foot, were named Pro- 
tectors. They mounted guard in the inner apartments, and 
they were employed to bear the imperial mandates to the 
provinces. 

While the civil and military departments of the state were 
thus modelled and regulated, a still more important change 
was effected by making the Christian religion that of the 
court and empire. We shall, however, defer our account 
of the condition and organization of the church under Con- 
stantine and his successors, and only at present notice the 
conversion of that emperor, and the motives in which it 
originated. 

Constantius, without being a Christian, had, from motives 
of justice and humanity, treated his subjects of that faith 
with indulgence. His example was followed by his son ; 
and the Christians, comparing his moderation with the per- 
secuting spirit of Galerius and his colleagues, were naturally 
disposed to favor him. Constantine, however, was still a 
polytheist; and his principal object of worship was the sun- 
god, Apollo. At the same time with the compliant spirit of 
polytheism, he held the God of the Christians and the author 
of their faith in respect and reverence. After the defeat 
and death of Maxentius, (313,) Constantine and Licinius is- 
sued at Milan an edict of general toleration ; restoring, at. 
the same time, to the Christians the lands and churches of 
which they had been deprived. To the terms of this edict 
Constantine firmly adhered ; and he was probably becoming 
daily more convinced of the superiority of the Christian 
religion, and of the advantage that might result from his 

CONTIN. 27 N N 



314 CONSTANTINE. 

embracing it; while Licinius speedily violated it, and par- 
tially renewed the persecution. In the second war between 
these emperors, (324,) the cross appeared on the banner of 
Constantine ; and his victory was followed by the issue of 
circular letters announcing his own conversion, and inviting 
his subjects to follow his example. The call of a powerful 
monarch was not likely to be unheeded; the Christian faith 
rapidly spread ; offices of trust, profit, and honor, were be- 
stowed almost exclusively on Christians; bishops thronged 
the court; paganism was in every way discouraged, and 
Christianity finally triumphed over its ancient enemy. 

The conversion of Constantine may have been, and prob- 
ably was, sincere. But in all such cases, motives of policy 
are apt to concur with higher ones, and often to exercise a 
superior influence. Constantine must have seen that the 
Christians, if not the most numerous, were the best united 
and organized, and consequently the most powerful body in 
the empire. He could not be blind to the great superiority 
of the Christian morality over that of heathenism, and, as a 
wise sovereign, he must have seen that it was his interest to 
promote its diffusion. The doctrine of passive obedience, 
held by the Christians of that time, must have proved most 
grateful to the ears of a monarch ; and the zeal in his cause 
and the loyalty shown by the Christians cannot have been 
wholly without effect on his mind. These various motives 
may, then, have given force to the reasonings of the Christian 
divines ; but we are assured that the efficient cause of the 
conversion of the emperor was a miracle. 

According to the biographer of this emperor, the learned 
Bishop Eusebius, as Constantine was on his march against 
Maxentius, there appeared one day, in the sight of himself 
and his whole army, a luminous cross above the sun in the 
noon-day sky, bearing inscribed on it the words, " By this 
conquer," {Hac vince ;) and, in the following night, Christ 
himself stood in a dream before the emperor, bearing a simi- 
lar cross, and directed him to frame a standard of that form, 
vi'hich would assure him of victory against Maxentius. The 
standard was accordingly framed, and, under the name of 
Labarum, a word of unknown origin, it became the future 
banner of the empire. Its form was that of a long pike, with 
a transverse bar, from which hung a piece of silk adorned 
with the images of the monarch and his children. On the 
top of the pike was a wreath of gold, enclosing the mono- 
gram of the name of Christ, and the sign of the cross. The 



A.D. 326.] CRispus. 315 

care of the Labarum was always committed to fifty soldiers 
of approved valor and fidelity. 

This legend is related by Eusebius, on the authority of 
Constantine himself; but his narrative did not appear till 
after the death of the emperor,- and, in his earlier work, the 
Ecclesiastical History, he is silent respecting it. Another 
contemporary mentions only a dream, in which Constantine 
was directed, on the night before the battle with Maxentius, 
to inscribe the sacred monogram on the shields of his sol- 
diers ; and adds, that his obedience was rewarded with vic- 
tory.* We take not on us to decide how much of fiction 
or of error there may be in the legend; but that no actual 
miracle was wrought, we venture to affirm without hesitation, 
in accordance with our fixed opinions on the subject. 

We now return to the course of our historic narrative. A 
dark transaction, which has fixed an indelible stain on the 
memory of Constantine, is the first that meets our view. We 
have already seen that, before his marriage with the daugh- 
ter of Maximian, he had had a son by his first wife. This 
youth, named Crispus, was reared under the charge of the 
pious, learned, and eloquent Lactantius. Christian writers 
and historians are unanimous in the testimony which they 
bear to the virtues of the heir-apparent to the empire. It is 
possible that, as is asserted, Crispus may have been jealous 
of the partiality shown by the emperor to the children of his 
second marriage, one of whom, Constantius, had been sent, 
with the title of Caesar, to administer the government of 
Gaul, while he himself was detained in inactivity at court. 
He may also, as is said, have given vent to his feelings in 
imprudent language; and any one at all acquainted with the 
texture of courts in general, can easily suppose that, in the 
palace of a despotic prince, there was no lack of wretches 
who would seek to advance their own interest by exciting 
enmity between the father and the son. An edict of Con- 
stantine's, issued toward the end of the year 325, shows that he 
believed or feigned that a secret conspiracy had been formed 
against him, and in favor of Crispus. Whatever his suspi- 
cions of his son, or his designs against him, may have been, 
they were closely concealed ; and Crispus, in the following 
year, (326,) accompanied his father to Rome, when he pro- 
ceeded thither to celebrate the twentieth year of his reign. 
In the midst of the festival, the prince was arrested ; after a 
short private examination, or possibly no examination at all, 

* The author of the treatise De Mortihus Persecutorum. 



316 CONSTANTINE. [a. D. 326. 

he was sent, under a strong guard, to Pola in Istria, where, 
shortly after, he was put to death by poison, or by the hand 
of the executioner. His fate was shared by the son of the 
late emperor Licinius. 

When a biographer passes in silence over any important 
action of his hero, we may be certain that a minute and 
exact inquiry, and a sifting of all the circumstances, has 
convinced him that it is incapable of bearing exposure to 
the light, and that no ingenuity can avail to extenuate, much 
less excuse it. On this principle, we hold the profound 
silence of Eusebius on this mysterious transaction to be 
conclusive of the guilt of Constantino and the innocence of 
Crispus ; and, at the same time, destructive of that prelate's 
claim to truth and integrity as an historian. 

The later Greeks, however, have fabled that Constantine 
discovered his error, mourned and repented it, and erected 
a golden statue bearing the inscription. To my son, who?n I 
unjustly condemned. A more ancient account said, that the 
story of Phaedra and Hippolytus was renewed in the imperial 
palace, and that the death of Crispus was caused by the dis- 
appointed lust of Fausta. It is added, that the emperor's 
mother, Helena, enraged at the fate of her innocent grand- 
son, caused Fausta to be closely watched ; and, it being 
discovered that she carried on an adulterous intercourse 
with a slave belonging to the stables, she was suffocated, 
by order of her husband, in a bath, made more than usually 
hot for the purpose.* The deaths of Crispus, Licinius, and 
Fausta, were followed by those of many of the emperor's 
friends, on various charges 

By Fausta the emperor had had three sons, named Con- 
stantine, Constantius, and Constans ; his elder brother, Ju- 
lius Constantius, had, beside other children, two sons, named 
Gallus and Julian ; and Dalmatius, another brother, was the 
father of two princes, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus. From 
some motive which has not been assigned, Constantine re- 
solved to associate the two last-named nephews with his own 
sons in the empire, placing the former, as a Caesar, on an 
equality with them, and giving the latter the new title of 
Nobilissimus, and even, as it would appear, that of King, 
which we find used of him alone. 

A war between the Goths and Sarmatians drew the atten- 

* Zosimus, Philostorgius, and others, assert that Fausta was put to 
death. Yet, as Gibbon observes, in a Monody on her son, the younger 
Constantine, she is said to have lived to deplore his fate. 



A.D. 331-337.] DEATH OF CONSTANTINE. 317 

tion of Constantine, in the latter years of his reign. Policy 
causing him to take the part of the latter, the former crossed 
the Danube, and laid Moesia waste, (331.) The emperor 
took the field in person ; but his troops fled from before them, 
and he was obliged to retire. In the following year, (332,) 
however, the imperial troops, led by the Caesar Constantius, 
retrieved their fame. The Goths were forced to recross 
the Danube, and to sue for peace. The Sarmatians having 
shown the usual levity and ingratitude of barbarians, Con- 
stantine left them to their fate. Vanquished in battle by the 
Goths, they armed their slaves, and, by their aid, expelled 
the invaders from their territory ; but the slaves turned their 
arms against their masters, drove them out of the country, 
and held it under the name of Limigantes. 

Nothing occurred to disturb the tranquillity of the empire 
during the remaining years of the reign of Constantine. He 
breathed his last on the 22d of May, 337, in the palace of 
Aquirion, at Nicomedia, in the 65th year of his age, after a 
prosperous reign of thirty years and ten months. His corpse 
was removed to Constantinople, where it was placed on a 
golden bed, in an illuminated apartment of the palace; and 
each day, the principal officers of state approached it and 
offered their homage, as if to the living emperor. It was at 
length committed to the tomb, with all fitting ceremony and 
magnificence. 

The merits and virtues of the emperor Constantine were 
so numerous and conspicuous, that, were it not for the deaths 
of his son, and nephew, and friends, his name would be 
without any considerable blemish. It is, however, objected 
to him, that, in his latter years, he adopted a style of dress 
and manners which exhibited more of Asiatic effeminacy 
than of Roman dignity. He is also charged with lavishing 
on needless and expensive buildings the money wrung from 
his subjects by oppressive taxation, and of overlooking, if 
not encouraging, the rapacity of his friends and favorites. 
Like so many of those who have attained to empire by their 
own merits and talents, Constantine is more to be esteemed 
in the early than in the later years of his reign. 

It is remarkable, that Constantine (though he openly pro- 
fessed the Christian religion, convened and presided at a 
general council of the church, and enjoyed nearly all the 
privileges of the initiated order of the faithful) remained all 
through his reign in the humble rank of a catechumen, and 
deferred receiving the sacrament of baptism till he discerned 
27* 



318 CONSTANTINE II., ETC. [a. D. 337. 

the certain symptoms of the approach of his dissolution. 
The superstition in which this practice originated, has 
already been explained ; and it derogates from the wisdom or 
knowledge of the Nicene Fathers, to know that they tacitly, 
at least, sanctioned a usage so detrimental to true religion. 



CHAPTER III.* 
CONSTANTINE II., CONSTANTIUS, CONSTANS. 
A.U. 1090—1114. A.D. 337—361. 

SLAUGHTER OF THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. PERSIAN WAR. 

DEATHS OF CONSTANTINE AND CONSTANS. MAGNENTIUS. 

GALLUS. JULIAN. SILVANUS. COURT OF CONSTAN- 
TIUS. WAR WITH THE LIMIGANTES. PERSIAN WAR. 

JULIAN IN GAUL. BATTLE OF STRASBURG. JULIAN 

PROCLAIMED EMPEROR. HIS MARCH FROM GAUL. 

DEATH OF CONSTANTIUS. 

Constantine II., Constantius, Constcms. 
A.u. 1090—1103. A.D. 337—350. 

The tomb had not received the mortal remains of the 
great Constantine, when a plot was laid to destroy some of 
the objects of his regard. The troops were induced — we are 
not informed by whom or by what means — to declare that 
none but the sons of the late monarch should rule over his 
empire ; and Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were seized and 
placed under custody, till Constantius, to whom the charge 
of the funeral had been committed, should arrive in the cap- 
ital. When this prince came, he pledged his oath to his 
kinsmen for their safety ; but ere long a false charge was 
made against them, and the soldiers became clamorous for 
their death. A general massacre of the imperial family en- 
sued, in which two uncles and seven cousins of Constantius, 
and with them Optatus, the husband of his aunt, perished. 

* Authorities : ^osimus, Ammianus, Marcellinus, tiie Epitomators, 
and the Ecclesiastical Historians. 



A. D. 337-340.] CONSTANTINE II., ETC. 319 

Their fate was shared by the prefect Ablavius, the minister 
and favorite of the late emperor. Of the whole imperial 
family, there only remained Gallus and Julian, the sons of 
Julius Constantius. 

In the following month of September, the three brothers 
had a personal interview, in which a new arrangement of the 
empire was concluded; by which Constantine, as the eldest, 
was conceded a superiority in rank, and the possession of the 
eastern capital. 

The eastern frontier gave Constantius occupation for some 
years. Sapor II., king of Persia, a prince of great energy 
and enterprise, burned to recover the provinces which had 
been ceded to Galerius; but dread of the power and genius 
of Constantine had held him in check. As soon, however, 
as the empire fell into the hands of inexperienced young 
princes, he poured his troops into Mesopotamia, and for some 
years the Roman annals had only to tell of armies defeated, 
and towns besieged or taken by the Persian monarch. In 
the battle of Singara, (348,) the Roman legions routed the 
troops of Persia, and drove them to their camp ; as the night 
was at hand, Constantius, who commanded in person, sought 
to restrain his men, and defer the attack till the light of 
morn. But, heedless of the commands of their prince, the 
soldiers, eager for prey, pressed on, and, forcing the camp, 
spread themselves all over it in search of plunder. In the 
dead of the night. Sapor, who had posted his troops on the 
adjacent hills, led them to the attack of the scattered and un- 
prepared enemies; and the Romans were routed with im- 
mense slaughter. The survivors escaped with the utmost 
difficulty, and endured intolerable hardships in their retreat. 
This is said to have been the ninth victory over the troops of 
Rome achieved by the arms of Sapor. But, though thus suc- 
cessful in the field, he was unable to carry the important city 
of Nisibis. Thrice did he lead his forces under its walls, 
and thrice did he employ in vain the valor of his soldiers 
and the arts of his engineers; the gallant city still remained 
unsubdued. 

While Constantius was thus occupied in the East, Con- 
stans had become sole ruler in the West; for Constantine, 
having required that Constans should resign Africa to him, 
and being irritated by the insincerity displayed by that prince 
in the negotiation, made a sudden irruption into his domin- 
ions, (340.) But in the neighborhood of Aquileia he came 
to an engagement with the generals of Constans, and, being 



320 CONSTANTIUS. [a. d. 350. 

drawn into an ambush, himself and all those about him were 
slain. Constans then took possession of the whole of his do- 
minions, refusing to give any share to his remaining brother, 
who does not, however, appear to have claimed it. 

For about ten years Constans exercised every kind of op- 
pression over his subjects. His hours were devoted to the 
chase, and to other pleasures of a less innocent nature. At 
length (350) a conspiracy was formed against him by Mag- 
nentius, a Frank, but born in Gaul, who commanded the 
Jovian and Herculian guards. Marcellinus, the treasurer, 
shared in the conspiracy ; and when the court was at Autun, 
and the emperor was taking the pleasures of the chase in the 
adjoining forest, Magnentius gave, under the pretext of cele- 
brating his son's birthday, a magnificent entertainment, to 
which were invited the principal officers of the army. The 
festival was prolonged till after midnight, when Magnentius 
withdrew for a little time, and then reappeared clad in the 
imperial habit. Those in the secret instantly saluted him 
emperor, and the remainder, taken by surprise, were induced 
to join in the acclamation. Promises and money were liber- 
ally scattered, and both the soldiery and the people declared 
for Magnentius. It was hoped that they might be able to 
surprise Constans on his return from the chase ; but he got 
timely information, and fled for Spain. He was, however, 
overtaken by those despatched in pursuit of him, at a town 
named Helena, (Elne,) at the foot of the Pyrenees, dragged 
from a church to which he had fled for refuge, and put to 
death. 



Const antius. ^ 

A.u. 1103—1114. A. D. 350—361. 

The whole of the West, with the exception of Illyricum, 
yielded obedience to Magnentius. The troops of that country 
were commanded by Vetranio, an aged general of simple 
and upright manners, but so illiterate as to be ignorant of 
even reading and writing. At first he professed allegiance to 
the remaining son of Constantine; but at length he yielded 
to the desires of his legions and those of the princess Con- 
stantina, the daughter of Constantine, and widow of Hanni- 
balianus, who thus, perhaps, sought to obtain vengeance for 
her husband, and to recover her own power. He consented 



A. D. 350.] VETRANIO. 321 

to accept of empire; and Constantina with her own hand 
placed the diadem on his head. Vetranio soon found it ex- 
pedient to accept of the proffered alliance of Magnentius. 

An opportune incursion of the Massagetans into the 
northern part of his dominions having just at this time 
called Sapor away from the third siege of Nisibis, Constan- 
tius found himself at leisure to attend to the affairs of the 
West. Leaving a sufficient force with his generals, he set 
out, for Europe, to avenge the murder of his brother. At 
Heraclea in Thrace, he was met by an embassy from the 
two emperors of the West, headed by Marcellinus. It was 
proposed that he should acknowledge them, marry the 
daughter of Magnentius, and give Constantina in marriage 
to that prince. Next day he gave his reply : the shade of the 
great Constantine, embracing the corpse of his murdered 
brother, had, he said, appeared to him in the night, bidden 
him not to despair of the republic, and assured him of vic- 
tory. He dismissed one of the ambassadors, put the others 
in irons as traitors, and then pursued his march. 

His conduct toward Vetranio was artful and politic. 
While he menaced Magnentius with veng'eance as a traitor, 
he acknowledged the Illyrian Augustus as a colleague, and 
finally induced him to unite with him against the usurper. 
It was agreed that the two emperors and their armies should 
meet at the town of Sardica. The troops of Vetranio were 
far superior both in number and strength to those of the em* 
peror of the East ; but the reliance of Constantius was on 
the promises that he had lavished on them, by which most of 
both officers and men had been secretly gained to his side. 
The united armies were assembled (Dec. 25) in a large 
plain near the city, and the two emperors ascended the tri- 
bunal to address them. Constantius spoke the first. He 
inveighed against Magnentius ; he spoke of the glories of 
Constantine, and of their oaths of fidelity to him. Those 
who were prepared for the purpose, and stood about the tri- 
bunal, then cried out that they would have no spurious em- 
perors, and would only serve under the son of Constantine; 
and the cry was repeated through all the ranks. Vetranio, 
thus abandoned by his own troops, took off his diadem, and 
fell at the feet of his imperial colleague. Constantius raised 
him, and promised him safety. The city of Prusa in Bithynia, 
with an ample revenue, was assigned for the place of his 
abode ; and he there passed the remaining six years of his 
life in ease and tranquillity. 



322 coNSTANTius. [a. D. 351-352. 

Early in the spring, (351,) Magnentius took the field with 
a large army. The advantages were on his side throughout 
the summer, and Constantius, who shunned to meet him in 
the field, found it necessary to offer him terms of peace. 
But the haughtiness of the usurper, who required him to re- 
sign his purple, promising him life on that humiliating condi- 
tion, put an end to all hopes of accommodation; and Con- 
stantius resolved to trust to Heaven, and conquer or fall with 
honor. Magnentius then advanced, and made an attempt on 
the town of Mursa, {Esscic,) situated on the River Drave. 
Constantius led his troops to its defence, and the two armies 
encountered (Sept. 28) on the plain in which the city stands. 
Leaving the command with his generals, Constantius retired 
to an adjoining church, where he passed the day in prayer. 
The engagement lasted till night, and the victory of the im- 
perial troops, chiefly owing to the heavy cataphract cavalry, 
was complete. The number of men slain in the battle is said 
to have been 54,000, of whom more than one half fell on the 
side of the victors. Magnentius escaped with difiiculty from 
the emperor's light horse, who chased him to the foot of the 
Julian Alps. 

The winter passed away in inaction, and when spring came 
(352) Magnentius fixed his abode at Aquileia, in order to 
oppose the farther advance of the imperial troops; but he 
soon found it necessary, in consequence of the defection of 
the troops and people of Italy, to abandon that position, and 
retire into Gaul. The cause of this defection was the cruelty 
used by his ministers, on the occasion of the suppression of 
an insurrection at Rome, where a youth named Nepotianus, 
the son of Eutropia, the sister of Constantine, had armed a 
band of slaves and gladiators, and assumed the purple. Him- 
self, his mother, and all connected with the family of Con- 
stantine, were put to death ; all parts of the city were filled 
with blood, and terror every where prevailed. Communica- 
tions were, therefore, opened with Constantius after the bat- 
tle of Mursa, and all Italy finally declared in his favor. It 
was now, therefore, the turn of Magnentius to sue. He sent 
some bishops to Constantius, offering to resign the purple, 
and to serve him faithfully ; but the emperor would listen to 
no proposals on the part of the assassin, though he offered 
pardon to all who would abandon him. The imperial fleet 
had, meantime, acquired the possession of Africa and Spain, 
and landed an army in the latter country, which entered Gaul 
and advanced toward Lyons, where Magnentius was residing. 



A. D. 351-354.] DEFEAT OF MAGNENTIUS. 323 

The oppressions exercised by this tyrant in order to obtain 
money and supplies from the cities of Gaul, at length drove 
the people to desperation ; and a revolt commenced at Treves, 
where the gates were shut against his brother Decentius, 
vi^hom he had made an Augustus. The Germans, with whom 
Constantius had formed an alliance, passed the Rhine, and 
besieged Decentius in Sens. The imperial troops at length 
forced the passage of the Cottian Alps, and a battle was 
fought at a place named Mount Seleucus, in which the usur- 
per was totally defeated. He fled to Lyons, where, finding 
that his soldiers were preparing to seize and surrender him, 
he anticipated their design by falling on his sword. Decen- 
tius strangled himself when he heard of his brother's death, 
and Constantius now remained sole master of the Roman 
world. 

Of the male line of Constantine there were now only the 
emperor himself and his cousins, Gallus and Julian, remaining. 
These youths, after the massacre of their family, had been 
placed in different cities of Asia, where they were surrounded 
and guarded by persons devoted to the emperor; but they 
were treated with care and respect, and their education was 
diligently attended to. At length, (351,) when the emperor 
was preparing to avenge the murder of his last remaining 
brother, he conferred on Gallus, then in his twenty-fifth year, 
the dignity of Caesar, committed to him the government of 
the East, and gave him in marriage the princess Constantina. 
The new Csesar fixed his abode at Antioch. 

Gallus was in every way unfit to rule. He had no experi- 
ence of the world, and his natural temper was violent and ty- 
rannic. Had he been united to a woman of mild and amiable 
manners, his innate ferocity might perhaps have been mit- 
igated; but Constantina was one who actually delighted in 
blood ; and, instead of restraining, she stimulated her husband 
to deeds of cruelty. The apartments of the palace were filled 
with the implements of death and torture; all places, both 
public and private, were beset with informers; no man's life 
was secure ; and a general gloom pervaded the city. 

While Constantius was engaged in the contest for his em- 
pire, he had not leisure to attend to the proceedings of his 
Caesar : at length, however, (354,) he came to the resolution 
of depriving him of his rank, or of removing him to Gaul; 
and, on the occasion of the massacre of a nobleman named 
Theophilus, by the populace of Antioch, in a time of scarci- 
ty, with the connivance of Gallus, he sent the prefect Domi- 



324 CONSTANTIUS, [a. d. 354. 

tian, with directions to prevail, by gentle means, if possible, 
on Gall us to proceed to Italy ; for he feared to attack him 
openly, lest he should assert his independence. But Domi- 
tian, on arriving at Antioch, instead of waiting on Gallus, as 
he should have done, passed by the palace gate, and, on the 
pretext of illness, remained at his own house for some days. 
When, at last, he condescended to visit the Caesar, he roughly 
ordered him to set out for Italy at once, threatening, in case 
of his refusal, to stop the supply of provisions to the palace. 
He then rose and went away, and would not appear any more 
before the Csesar, though often summoned. This conduct 
would have provoked a much meeker temper than that of 
Gallus, who immediately set a guard on the house of the pre- 
fect. The quaestor, Montius, then called together the prin- 
cipal officers of the guards, and, dilating on what had occurred, 
hinted that Gallus was about to rebel. When this reached 
the ears of the Caesar, he assembled the soldiers, and called 
on them to protect him. They instantly seized Montius, 
who was an infirm old man, and, tying his legs with ropes, 
dragged him to the abode of Domitian, whom they likewise 
bound, and then dragged them both through the streets till 
they were dead, and, after insulting their bodies in a bar- 
barous manner, flung them into the river. The cruelty of 
Gallus now redoubled, and guilty and innocent suffered 
alike. 

Constantius and his council were perplexed how to act ; 
but they finally resolved to proceed with artifice, and draw 
the Caesar into their toils gently. The emperor wrote to him 
in most affectionate terms, entreating him to come and assist 
him in managing the arduous affairs of the West: in like 
manner, he wrote to his sister, expressing a most anxious de- 
sire to see her. Constantina accordingly set out for Europe ; 
but on the way she fell sick, and died at a town in Bithynia. 
As it was chiefly on her influence with her brother that Gal- 
lus relied for his safety, her death threw him into the utmost 
perplexity. While he was hesitating, Scudilo, a tribune of the 
guards, arrived, a man who under the guise of martial rough- 
ness and frankness concealed a most artful and insinuating 
character ; and by his representations he was induced to set 
out for Europe. At Constantinople he imprudently took on 
him to bestow a crown on the victor in a chariot race, which 
assumption of imperial power, as it was deemed, greatly con- 
tributed to exasperate the emperor against him. The soldiers 
were removed from all the towns through which he was to 



A. D. 355.] GAI^LUS. 325 

pass, lest they should declare for him — a needful precaution, 
as it would appear ; for, when he reached Hadrianople, the 
Thebaean legions which lay in that neighborhood sent to 
offer him their services; but their deputies were unable to 
obtain access to him, for he was surrounded by persons de- 
voted to the court, who had been sent to occupy all the places 
in his establishment. Letters now reached him requiring his 
immediate presence at court ; and he was obliged to set out 
with only a few attendants, and to travel post with the utmost 
speed. On reaching the town of Petobio {Pettau) on the 
Drave, he was lodged in a palace without the walls ; and 
toward evening it was surrounded with soldiers, and their 
commander, Barbatio, entered and stripped the Ca3sar of his 
royal dress, putting common raiment upon him, and then, 
with oaths assuring him of safety, made him arise and enter a 
common carriage, in which he was conveyed to a place near 
Pola in Istria, which had been the scene of the last sufferings 
of the unhappy Crispus. After being kept a short time in 
suspense, and having undergone an examination respecting 
his conduct in the East, in which he confessed his criminal 
acts, but cast the entire blame of them on his wife, he was 
secretly beheaded in prison. 

The imperial family was thus reduced to the emperor him- 
self and his cousin Julian. The eunuchs, who were all-power- 
ful in the palace, labored hard for the destruction of this 
prince, who had been brought to the court of Milan, and 
charges of treason were devised against him ; but though he 
easily refuted all that his enemies could allege, his innocence 
would probably have availed him little against the arts and 
the influence of those who dreaded him as his brother's aven- 
ger, had he not found a powerful protectress in the empress 
Eusebia, a woman of considerable beauty and merit, who ex- 
ercised great power over the mind of her husband. Julian 
was at length (355) permitted to retire to Athens, to pursue 
the literary studies in which he delighted. His abode in that 
seat of learning was, however, but of brief duration ; for Con- 
stantius, finding himself totally unequal to the sole direction 
of the multitudinous affairs of the empire, menaced on all its 
frontiers by restless and powerful enemies, yielded to the ar- 
guments and entreaties of the empress, who represented to 
him that Gallus and Julian had differed in character as much 
as the sons of Vespasian, and that from the mild, gentle tem- 
per of the latter he might expect to meet with nothing but 
gratitude and obedience. She thus induced him to consent 

CONTIN. 28 



326 CONSTANTIUS. [a. d. 355, 

to associate Julian in the empire ; and an order was despatched 
for that prince to return immediately to court. Julian quitted 
Athens with deep and unfeigned regret. He was kindly re- 
ceived at Milan; the only condition exacted from him was a 
marriage with the emperor's sister Helena, a princess some 
years his senior; and on the day in which he entered his 
twenty-fifth year, (Nov. 6,) Constantius, in the presence and 
amid the acclamations of the army, bestowed on him the 
dignity of Csesar. He was immediately after sent to take 
the command in Gaul. 

This country had lately been the scene of rebellion^ and 
this circumstance had probably contributed to the elevation 
of Julian. Silvanus, one of those German officers who were 
now so numerous in the Roman service, had, by his opportune 
desertion just before the battle of M ursa, contributed not a 
little to the victory of Constantius. The command of the 
imperial infantry was his reward, and he enjoyed the favor 
of his sovereign, which, however, only exposed him the more 
to the hostility of the favorites, one of whom, Arbetio, as the 
surest means of destroying him, induced the emperor to give 
him the charge of delivering Gaul from the depredations of 
the Germans. Silvanus was not long in thai province, when 
an agent, selected for the purpose, applied to him for letters 
of recommendation to his friends at court. These be unsus- 
pectingly gave, and they were conveyed to his enemies, who, 
erasing all but the signature, filled them with language calling 
on his friends to aid his designs on the empire. The matter 
was then laid before the emperor in council, and orders were 
given to arrest the persons to whom the letters were addressed. 
Malaric, however, the commander of the foreign guards, and 
Silvanus's countryman, aided by his brother officers, warmly 
asserted the innocence of the absent general ; and at his in- 
stance a new inquiry was instituted, in which the forgery was 
detected. The discovery, however, came too late; Silvanus, 
indignant at the treatment he had received, and seeing no 
other prospect of security, had assumed the purple at Cologne. 
Treachery was then employed against him, and Urcisinus, a 
general who had lately distinguished himself so much in the 
defence of the East, that fear of his doing what Silvanus had 
now done had caused his recall, sullied his fame by becoming 
the instrument. He set out for Gaul, with a few of his friends, 
under the pretence of avenging the injuries which he had re- 
ceived at court, and joined the usurper. He was received with 
kindness and confidence, which he repaid by seducing some of 



A. D. 357.] COURT OF CONSTANTIUS. 327 

the foreign troops, and causing Silvanus to be murdered after 
a brief reign of twenty-eight days. The troops then returned 
to their allegiance. 

The court of Gonstantius was one in which all the vices 
which distinguished those of the East flourished in luxuriance. 
There was in it no place for virtue and integrity ; the vile 
race of eunuchs (for such the history of all ages proves them 
to be) were so powerful, that, as the historian sarcastically 
observes, Gonstantius had a good deal of influence with the 
chief of them, the chamberlain Eusebius. Their rapacity 
knew no bounds ; justice and the honors of the state were 
set up to sale, the complaints of the injured were intercept- 
ed, the honorable and the independent were secretly under- 
mined or openly assailed. But the eunuchs were not the 
sole authors of evil ; we find among the pests of the court 
the general Barbatio, and Paulus the notary, a crafty Span- 
iard surnamed Gatena, from his skill in entangling destined 
victims in the meshes of dangerous subtleties. There were 
many others whose names it boots not to record. The char- 
acter of the emperor, jealous of his dignity, and barbarously 
cruel to all who were even suspected of encroaching on it, 
gave effect to the arts of these men, and few were safe from 
their machinations. 

While Gonstantius remained in Italy, he paid a visit to the 
ancient capital, (Apr. 28, 357.) He entered it in a triumphal 
procession, visited and admired all its venerable monuments, 
and gave orders for the transportation thither of an obelisk 
from Egypt, to commemorate his abode at Rome. After a 
stay of only thirty days, he quitted it, never again to return. 

The cause of his so speedy departure was the invasion of 
the lUyrian provinces by their ancient devastators, the Qua- 
dans and their allies. He took the field in person against 
them, cut their armies to pieces, ravaged their country far 
and wide, and compelled them to sue for peace. At this 
time also he listened to the entreaties of the Sarmatians, and 
consented to turn his arms against their rebellious slaves. 
On his approach, the Limigantes offered to pay an annual 
tribute, and to furnish recruits for the army ; but they ex- 
pressed their determination not to quit their country. When, 
however, they found themselves attacked on different sides 
by the Roman legions, their former masters, and the Gothic 
Taifalans, their dwellings fired, and their country ravaged in 
all directions, their spirit abated, and they came, with their 
wives and children, to the Roman camp, and consented to re- 



# 



328 CONSTANTIUS. [a. d. 359. 

move whithersoever it should please the emperor to appoint 
their abode. Lands were accordingly assigned them at some 
distance from the river ; and, the war being thus to all ap- 
pearance terminated, Constantius retired to Sirmium for the 
winter. Early, however, in the following year, (359,) intel- 
ligence that the Limigantes had returned, and were about to 
cross the Danube and ravage the provinces, obliged him 
again to take the field. When he reached the banks of the 
river, the Limigantes were quite submissive, craved permis- 
sion to be allowed to pass over and state their grievances, 
and to have lands assigned them within the Roman frontiers, 
where they might dwell as peaceful subjects. Constantius 
gave a cheerful consent; his tribunal was erected on a mound 
near the river ; the Limigantes surrounded it ; he stood up, 
and was preparing to address them, when one of them flung 
his shoe at the tribunal, and raised their war-cry, 3Iarha 
Qiiarha. Listantly a rush to the tribunal was made by the 
multitude ; the emperor had only time to mount a fleet horse, 
and fly to the camp ; his guards were cut to pieces, and the 
tribunal was destroyed. But when the Roman troops learned 
the danger to which their emperor had been exposed, they 
hastened to take vengeance on the traitors ; and they speedily 
massacred the entire multitude of the Limigantes. For his 
successes against this people, Constantius took the title of 
Sarmaticus. 

The war on the Illyrian frontier being thus terminated, the 
emperor found it necessary to proceed to the East, where 
Sapor had once more crossed the Tigris, and poured his 
troops over the plains of Mesopotamia. The director of the 
campaign was a Roman subject named Antoninus, who had 
been forced to seek at the court of Persia a refuge from op- 
pression. His plan was to neglect the fortresses, push on 
for the Euphrates, and think only of the conquest and plun- 
der of Antioch; but the country was destroyed by the Ro- 
mans, and the river, happening to swell at this time, could not 
be passed at the usual places. The march of the Persian 
army was therefore directed toward the head of the stream ; 
but, as it was passing under the walls of the strong city of 
Amida, Sapor halted and summoned it to surrender. A dart 
flung from the walls chanced to graze his tiara ; and the 
haughty despot, heedless of the remonstrances of his minis- 
ters, resolved to avenge the insult by the destruction of the 
city. His army, which counted one hundred thousand men, 
invested it after a general assault had been tried and failed. 



A. D. 360.] PERSIAN WAR. 329 

The works of the besiegers were carried on under the direc- 
tion of the Roman deserters, and, after a gallant defence of 
seventy-three days, the city was taken by storm, and all but 
those who had contrived to escape by the gate most remote 
from the point of attack were ruthlessly massacred. But the 
Persians purchased their conquest with the loss of nearly the 
third part of their host. 

The capture of Amida terminated the campaign. In the 
following spring, (360,) Sapor again crossed the Tigris. He 
besieged and took the cities of Singara and Bezabde ; the 
former of which he dismantled, as it lay in a sandy plain ; but 
in the latter, which occupied a peninsula on the Tigris, he 
placed a strong garrison. Having failed in an attempt on 
Virtha, a strong fortress of the independent Arabs, he led his 
troops back to Persia. In the autumn, Constantius, who had 
at length arrived in the East, passed the Euphrates, and, hav- 
ing assembled his troops at Edessa, and wept over the ruins of 
Amida, advanced to attempt the recovery of Bezabde ; but 
all his efforts to take it having failed, and the weather be- 
coming tempestuous, he abandoned the siege, and returned 
to Antioch for the winter. 

It is now time that we should direct our attention to the 
conduct of the Caesar Julian in his administration of the 
Gallic provinces. The Franks and Alemans had been of late 
almost the undisputed masters of the country to an extent far 
westward of the Rhine ; forty-five cities, among which were 
those bearing the modern names of Tongres, Treves, Worms, 
Spire, and Strasburg, beside numerous towns and villages, had 
been pillaged or burnt by them ; and the Caesar received at 
Turin, on his road, the intelligence of the capture of the 
flourishing colony of Cologne. He passed the winter at Vienne, 
and early in the summer (356) he proceeded to Autun, which 
had lately gallantly repelled an attack of the barbarians. He 
thence made his way through a country occupied by the en- 
emy to Rheims, where he had ordered his troops to assemble. 
After two encounters with the Alemans, in one of which he 
was successful, he penetrated to the Rhine, and, having sur- 
veyed the ruins of Cologne, and formed a just conception of 
the difficulties he would have to encounter, he led his troops 
back to their winter quarters in Gaul. He fixed his own 
abode in the city of Sens, where for thirty days he was be- 
sieged by the Alemans ; but he defended the town with skill 
and courage, and the barbarians were forced to retire. 

Julian himself, in his extant writings, speaks slightingly of 
28* pp 



330 CONSTANTIUS. [a. D. 357. 

his first campaign. It was the initiation of a retired student 
in the affairs of actual life ; and the love of honest fame, and 
the lessons of solid wisdom which he had derived from the 
works of those men of mighty intellect who had flourished in 
ancient Greece, combined with his natural talent, soon en- 
abled him to acquire the character of an able general. His 
next campaign therefore proved a glorious one. A principal 
cause of his success was the removal of the impediments 
which the eunuchs had prepared for him in his own army, 
where they had caused the command of the cavalry to be 
given to Marcellus, a man who seemed to think his only duty 
to be that of thwarting the Caesar. As, however, though 
near at hand, he had not come to his aid when he ran such 
risk at Sens, he was, on Julian's complaint, supported prob- 
ably by the empress, removed from his command, and an 
officer named Severus, of a very different character, sent in 
his stead. Marcellus proceeded to the court, and was com- 
mencing a course of insinuations against the loyalty of Julian, 
when the prince's chamberlain Eutherius, who had been de- 
spatched for the purpose, arrived. This noble-minded eu- 
nuch* demanded an audience of the emperor, and, when ad- 
mitted, he boldly asserted the innocence of his master, and 
proved the culpable conduct of Marcellus, who was obliged 
to retire in disgrace to his native country, Pannonia. 

Julian, now master of his actions, prepared to commence 
operations, (357.) The plan of the campaign was, that, while 
he should advance from Rheims on the one side with the 
troops of Gaul, Barbatio, the general of the imperial infantry, 
should lead an army of thirty thousand men from Italy, and 
cross the Rhine near Basil, [Rauraci,) so that the Alemans, 
attacked on both sides, should be forced to abandon the left 
bank of the river. Julian's first care was to restore the 
fortifications of the city of Saverne, in the heart of the 
country occupied by the enemy ; but, while he was thus en- 
gaged, a large body of the Alemans passed unobserved be- 
tween the two Roman armies, and made an attempt on the 
city of Lyons, which having failed, they fell to plundering 
the surrounding country, Julian immediately sent bodies 

* Ammianus (xvi. 7) is justly lavish in his praise of this excellent 
man. He commences by observing, that what he said would hardly 
be credited, " ea re quod si Numa Pompilius vel Socrates bona quos- 
dam dicerent de spadone, dictisque religionum adderent fidem, a veri- 
tate descivisse arguerentur. Sed inter vepres rosae nascuntur, et inter 
feras nonnullae mitescunt." 



A. D. 357.] JULIAN IN GAUL. 331 

of horse to occupy the roads by which they must return, and 
the booty was thus recovered, and all the plunderers cut to 
pieces, except those who were permitted to pass unmolested 
under the very ramparts of Barbatio's camp. When Julian, 
soon after, being anxious to drive the barbarians out of the 
islands which they occupied in the Rhine, applied to Bar- 
batio for seven of the boats which he had collected to form a 
bridge over the Rhine, the latter forthwith burned the whole 
of them, sooner than aid his operations. Julian, however, by 
means of the shallows in the river, caused by the summer 
heat, passed over a body of troops, and destroyed or expelled 
the barbarians. He then set his troops to restore the fortifi- 
cations of the town of Zabern, [TaberncB ;) and while they 
were thus engaged, Barbatio, as a further means of injuring 
Julian, seized the corn provided for them, consumed a part 
of it, and burned the remainder. Shortly after, he was sud- 
denly fallen on by the barbarians, defeated, and driven to 
Basil. Then, as if he had gained a victory, he put his troops 
into winter quarters, and returned to court, to follow his usual 
course of maligning the Caesar. 

Chnodomar, the Alemannic king, supported by six other 
kings and ten princes of royal lineage, now prepared to at- 
tack the Caesar, whose forces, as he learned from a desert- 
er, were, by the departure of Barbatio, reduced to thirteen 
thousand men. The Germans occupied three days and nights 
in passing the Rhine; and an army of thirty-five thousand 
of their warriors was thus assembled at Strasburg, [Argen- 
toratum.) Julian, who was encamped at a distance of twen- 
ty-one miles from that place, advanced to attack them; his 
troops being arranged in two divisions, the one of horse, the 
other of foot. It was so late in the day when they came in 
view of the enemy, that he wished to defer the attack till the 
morning; but the impatience of his troops was not to be 
restrained. Placing himself, therefore, at the head of his 
guards, he went round encouraging the men to fight valiantly. 
The battle then began; the Roman cavalry which was on the 
right fought at first in a manner worthy of its fame; but, 
as the Germans had mingled footmen through their cavalry, 
the heavy cuirassiers were thrown into confusion, and re- 
treated. Julian immediately rode up and rallied them, and 
the combat of cavalry was renewed. The Roman infantry, 
led by Severus, though vigorously opposed, was at length 
completely successful ; and the barbarians quitted the field 
with a loss of six thousand men, and many more were 



33^ CONSTANTIUS. [a. D. 358-359. 

drowned in the Rhine, or slain by the darts of their pursuers 
as they were swimming across. Chnodomar himself was ta- 
ken while attempting to escape, and conducted to the Caesar, 
by whom he was treated with kindness. He was afterwards 
sent to the emperor, who assigned him a residence at Rome, 
where he ended his days. In this glorious and important 
victory, the loss of the Romans had been only four tribunes 
and two hundred and forty-three men. 

Julian resolved to follow up his success, passed the Rhine 
near Mentz, and advanced for a space of ten miles into the 
hostile territory, wasting the lands and burning the houses. 
The impediment of a deep, dark forest, occupied by the con- 
cealed bands of the Germans, and the appearance of the 
snow, which now began to cover the ground, it being past the 
time of the autumnal equinox, warning him of the imprudence 
of any farther advance, he decided to repass the river. Be- 
fore, however, he quitted the soil of Germany, he repaired 
and garrisoned a fortress which Trajan had erected ; and, 
having granted the Alemans a truce for ten months, he 
departed. 

The following summer, (358,) Julian turned his arms 
against the Franks. By the celerity of his movements, he 
anticipated all resistance, and their tribes submitted to such 
terms as he thought fit to dictate. Then, as the truce with 
the Alemans had expired, he crossed the Rhine for the sec- 
ond time. Suomar, one of the most potent of the Alemanic 
princes, submitted at his approach. The territories of an- 
other, named Hortorius, were wasted with fire and sword, 
and he was forced to sue for mercy. Both princes were 
obliged to restore all the captives in their hands, and to sup- 
ply materials for the restoration of the towns which they 
had destroyed. 

As the princes who dwelt beyond the territories of Suomar 
and Hortorius had likewise shared in the war, Julian pre- 
pared to cross the Rhine a third time, in order to chastise 
them, (359.) As he was about to construct a bridge at Mentz, 
the German princes marched with all their forces, and oc- 
cupied the farther bank of the river. Their vigilance was 
such that there seemed but little prospect of the Romans 
being able to construct a bridge : but Julian caused three 
hundred men to drop down the stream one night in small 
boats, who very nearly succeeded in. capturing the German 
princes, as they were returning late from a banquet given by 
Hortorius, and their troops immediately dispersed to secure 



^;. 



A. D. 360.] JULIAN IN GAUL. 333 

their families and property. The Romans then crossed the 
river unopposed, and wasted the lands in the usual manner ; 
and the Alemannic kings, six in number, were glad to obtain 
peace on the conqueror's own terms. The number of Ro- 
man subjects delivered from captivity by this and the pre- 
ceding treaties was not less than twenty thousand. 

Julian's civil administration rivalled his military exploits. 
The ruined cities were restored, and, as the agriculture of 
Gaul had suffered severely from the events of late years, a 
fleet of six hundred large vessels was built for the regular 
importation of corn from the better cultivated isle of Britain, 
in order to supply the towns and fortresses along the Rhine, 
the free navigation of which stream to the sea Julian had 
forced the Franks to concede. Julian also attended strictly 
to the administration of justice ; and he alleviated, as far as 
was in his power, the burden of excessive taxation under 
which the people groaned. The usual residence of the 
Caesar during the winter was Lutetia or Paris, (Parisii,) a 
town built on an island in the Seine, and approached by two 
wooden bridges ; while a suburb, in which stood the imperial 
palace, spread over the left bank of the river. For this city 
Julian had an extreme partiality; and we find him amid the 
luxury and profligacy of Antioch dwelling on its memory 
with tender affection.* 

At the court of Constantius, Julian and his exploits were 
at first merely subjects of merriment to the eunuchs and the 
other favorites. His personal appearance and his manners 
were ridiculed in the presence of the emperor. He was 
called a she-goat, and no man, (in allusion to the philosophic 
beard which he cherished,) a chattering mole, an ape in pur- 
ple, and so forth ; nay, so far did courtly adulation and im- 
perial folly proceed, that, in the laurelled letters sent to the 
provinces to announce the victory at Strasburg, Constantius 
was actually declared to have gained it in person ! But the 
fame of Julian was not to be obscured by petty arts like 
these ; and the plan was adopted of alarming the jealousy of 
the emperor by dwelling on the talents and virtues of the 
Caesar, and hinting at the probability of his casting oflf his 
allegiance. As this was the subject on which Constantius 
was most susceptible of alarm, their stratagem easily suc- 
ceeded ; and a scheme for depriving him of the power to 
rebel was devised. In the spring of 360, a tribune and a 

* Misopogon, p. 340, 



334 coNSTANTros. [a. d. 360. 

notary arrived at Paris with orders for four entire divisions 
of the auxiliaries, and drafts of three hundred men each from 
the other corps, to proceed without delay to join the imperial 
standard in the East. Julian represented in vain that the 
Germans had entered the Roman service on the express con- 
dition of not being sent beyond the Alps, and that a breach 
of faith like this might put a total end to further enlistments: 
he also urged the unprotected condition in which Gaul would 
be left by the withdrawal of so large a portion of the troops 
belonging to it ; the imperial envoys would hear of nothing 
but obedience, and Julian was obliged to issue his orders for 
the march of the troops. His judicious advice that they 
should not march through Paris was also despised, and ere 
long they approached that city. Julian went forth to meet 
them; he addressed them, extolling their former exploits, and 
urging them to yield a cheerful obedience to the imperial 
commands. He then invited the principal officers to an en- 
tertainment, from which they departed sad and dejected at 
the idea of quitting their lenient prince, and their natal soil. 
At the approach of night, the discontent of the troops broke 
out into action; they seized their arms, and, surrounding 
the palace, with loud shouts proclaimed Julian Augustus. 
During the night, the entrances of the palace were secured 
against them; but at dawn Julian was obliged to come forth. 
His resistance, his menaces, his entreaties, his arguments, 
were of no avail ; he was forced to yield to their violence, 
and accept the proffered dignity. They raised him triumph 
antly on a shield, they proclaimed him Augustus, and then 
desired him to produce a diadem. On his saying that he 
did not possess one, they called for his wife's collar or brace- 
Jet; but Julian deemed a female ornament inauspicious, and 
refused to use it; for a similar reason he rejected a horse- 
trapping. At length, a standard-bearer took a collar from 
his own neck, and placed it on the head of the Caesar, who, 
having promised a donative of five gold pieces and a pound 
of silver to each man, was at length permitted to retire into 
the palace. 

In the manifesto which Julian some time after addressed to 
the Athenians, he declared in the most solemn manner that he 
was totally ignorant of the designs of the army; and he was 
a man of so much probity., and had such a veneration for truth, 
that it is difficult to refuse him our belief. That judicious 
and honest historian Ammianus, who was a contemporary, 
hints not a suspicion on the subject ; yet, when we consider 



A.D. 361.] JULiAN IN GAfL. 335 

the ordinary conduct of men in such circumstances, and rec- 
ollect that Julian must have been aware that the assumption 
of empire was almost the only security against his sharing 
the fate of his brother, we find it impossible not to feel some- 
what irictedulous. The question is, therefore, one of the 
many which must remain forever uncertain. That Julian 
was determined to retain the empire which he had accepted 
is beyond doubt; but he was most anxious to shun the guilt 
of the eifusion of blood in civil war. On the day following 
that of his elevation, he assembled the troops, and, addressing 
them with his usual eloquence, obtained from them an as- 
surance, that^ if the emperor of the East would acknowledge 
him, they would remain quietly in Gaul : he at the same 
time pledged himself, that promotion, both civil and military, 
should henceforth go by merit, and not by favor. Those 
officers who were known to be attached to Constantius were 
deposed and secured, but no blood was shed. Julian wrote 
to that emperor, excusing what had occurred, and requiring 
the confirmation of his dignity, but offering to acknowledge 
the supremacy of the elder emperor, and to supply him an- 
nually with Spanish horses and with barbarian recruits. 

While Julian was waiting the return of his ambassadors 
from the East, he increased his army by proclaiming a gene- 
ral pardon to the bands of outlaws which had arisen in conse- 
quence of the persecution of the adherents of Magnentius, 
and they cheerfully accepted it, and crowded to his standard. 
He then crossed the Rhine for the fourth time, to chastise the 
perfidy of the Attuarians, a Frankish tribe; and, this object 
being effected, he marched southwards, and took up his win- 
ter quarters at Vienne. As this city was full of Christians, 
and a great part of his army followed the Christian creed, 
Julian, who, as we shall presently show, had long since adopt- 
ed a different faith, condescended to play the hypocrite for 
probably the last time, and went publicly to the church on 
Christmas day. 

Early in the spring, (361,) Julian learned that Vadomar, an 
Alemannic prince, had committed ravages to the south of the 
Danube; and there appeared reason for believing that the 
German was actinop in obedience to secret instructions from 
Constantius, who wished to find occupation for his rival m 
Gaul, Julian resolved to employ artifice; and he sent the 
notary Philagrius, furnished with secret instructions to entrap 
the German prince. When Philagrius came to the Rhine, 
Vadomar, thinking his proceedings unknown, passed over to 



336 CONSTANTIUS. [a.d. 361. 

visit him, and readily accepted an invitation to a dinner. 
When he came, Philagrius retired to read his instructions, 
and, in obedience to them, he seized Vadomar, and forwarded 
him to the camp of Julian, where, being convicted by his own 
letter to Constantius, which had been intercepted, he was sent 
a prisoner into Spain. Julian, then putting himself at the 
head of some light troops, crossed the Rhine in the dead of 
the night, and so terrified the Germans, that they sought most 
humbly for pardon and peace. 

The ambassadors of Julian had met with so many obstacles 
and delays, that they did not overtake Constantius till he had 
reached Caesarea in Cappadocia, on his way for the Persian 
war. The empress Eusebia and the princess Helena, whose 
influence might have prevented a rupture, were both dead; 
and Constantius, left to his own passions and the suggestions 
of his flatterers, returned a haughty answer, requiring Juliaa 
to renounce his usurped title, and accept a pardon on certain 
conditions. Julian caused the letter to be read out in pres- 
ence of the army, with whose consent he declared himself 
ready to resign his dignity ; but the loud shouts of Julian Au- 
gustus, which rose on all sides, inspired him with resolution, 
and he dismissed the imperial envoy with a letter of defiance. 
These transactions, it may be observed, had taken place at 
Paris in the preceding year, just before Julian's expedition 
against the Attuarians. 

Aware of the importance of bold and decisive measures in 
civil contests, and fearful of the arts of Constantius among the 
Germans, Julian resolved to advance at once into Illyricum. 
His soldiers readily agreed to follow him; and at Basil he di- 
vided his army into three divisions, of which one, under two 
officers named Jovins and Jovinus, was to go through the Alps 
and northern Italy ; another, under Nevitta, the commander of 
the cavalry, was to proceed through Noricum ; while, at the 
head of the third, Julian himself, entering the Black Forest, 
should make for the Danube, and go down that river in boats. 
This daring and judicious plan proved perfectly successful. 
Julian landed unexpectedly at Bononia, within nineteen miles 
of Sirmlura, and seized Lucilian, the general of the cavalry, 
who was preparing to oppose him. At Sirmium he was joy- 
fully received, and, being immediately joined by his remain- 
ing divisions, he advanced and secured the pass of Succi in 
Mount Hsemus, When Constantius heard of the advance of 
Julian, he gave up all thoughts of the Persian war for the pres- 
ent, and prepared to return and combat for his empire. But 



AD. 361.] JULIAN. 337 

on his way he was attacked by a fever, caused, probably, by 
the agitation of his spirits, and he breathed his last at a little 
town near Tarsus, named Mopsucrenae, in the forty-fifth year 
of his age, naming, it is said, Julian for his successor. 



CHAPTER IV* 

JULIAN, JOVIAN. 

A. u. 1114— 1117. A. D. 361—364. 

REFORMATIONS OF JULIAN. HIS RELIGION. HIS TOLER- 
ANCE. JULIAN AT ANTIOCH. ATTEMPT TO REBUILD 

THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM. THE PERSIAN WAR. 

DEATH OF JULIAN. ELECTION OF JOVIAN. SURRENDER 

OF TERRITORY TO THE PERSIANS. RETREAT OF THE 

ROMAN ARMY. DEATH OF JOVIAN. 

Julian. 
A. u. 1114—1116. A. D. 361—363. 

Julian was at Naissus when two officers of rank arrived,, 
sent to inform him of the death of Constantius, and of his 
nomination to the empire. He therefore passed Mount 
Haemus without delay, marched by Philippopolis to Perin- 
thus, and, on the 11th of December, he entered the capital 
amid the loud and joyful acclamations of the people. 

The imperial palace, like the abode of an Eastern monarch, 
swarmed with eunuchs and other ministers of luxury. The 
emoluments of these men were enormous, and their salaries 
and allowances formed an article of no trifling magnitude in 
the accounts of the treasury. We are told that, one day when 
Julian called for a barber to trim his hair, he saw a man most 
splendidly dressed enter the apartment. The emperor, in af- 
fected amazement, exclaimed, " It was a barber, and not a 
receiver-general of the finances, that I sent for." He then 
inquired of him respecting his salary and perquisites, and 

* Authorities : Zosimus, Ammianus, Julian, Libanius, the Epitom- 
ators, and the Ecclesiastical Historians. 

CONTIN. 29 Q Q 



338 JULIAN. - [a. d. 361. 

found that, independently of a large salary and considerable 
perquisites, he had an allowance of twenty loaves a day, and 
fodder for an equal number of horses. Julian, regardless 
of justice, and of the claims of long, and, in some cases, 
faithful service, resolved on making a general clearance of 
the palace ; and barbers, cooks, cupbearers, and others, to 
the number of some thousands, got leave to go whither they 
would, many probably to starve. The emperor was also 
resolved that those who had been the instigators or instru- 
ments of the cruelties and oppressions exercised under the 
late reign, should not escape with impunity. A commission 
composed of two civilians, Sallust, the upright prefect of the 
East, and Mamertinus, the consul elect, and of four generals, 
Nevitta, Agilo, Jovinus, and Arbetio, was appointed to sit 
at Chalcedon, to hear charges and pass sentences. As the 
number of the military men, some of whom were barbarians 
by birth, predominated in the tribunal, the decisions were as 
often the result of prejudice and faction as of justice. No 
one can condemn the execution of the chamberlain Euse- 
bius, or of Apodemius, one of the chief agents in the de- 
struction of Silvanus and Gallus, or of Paulus Catena, which 
last was burnt alive ; but Justice herself seemed to Ammia- 
nus to have bewept the death of Ursulus, the treasurer, and 
to have convicted the emperor of ingratitude ; for, when he 
was sent into Gaul, in want of almost every thing, Ursulus had 
directed the treasurer there to supply him with all that he 
should require. Julian made a futile effort to get rid of the 
charge, by averring that Ursulus was put to death without 
his knowledge. As little can the banishment of Taurus, 
the ex-praetorian prefect, be justified, whose only offence 
was loyalty to the prince whom he served. On the whole, 
however, the number of those who suffered death or ban- 
ishment was not considerable, and most of them deserved 
their fate. 

The love of justice, and the correct sense of the duties of 
a ruler, which Julian had displayed when a Caesar in Gaul, 
did not desert him on the imperial throne in Constantinople; 
and, had it not been for one fatal circumstance, he might 
have been the object of general applause and admiration. 
But Julian had renounced the religion of the empire, and 
adopted that of ancient Greece, which he entertained the 
chimerical idea of restoring to its primitive importance ; 
and, in the pursuit of this object, he did not attend suf- 
ficiently to the principles of justice and equity. From his 



A. D. 361.] RELIGION OF JULIAN. 339 

change of faith he has been styled the Apostate, unjustly, as 
appears to us, for of his sincerity there can be no doubt; 
and, however we may lament for, pity, or even despise those 
who change from conviction, we are not justified in con- 
demning or reviling them. 

Gallus and Julian, after the massacre of their relatives, 
had been committed to the charge of Eusebius, the bishop 
of Nicomedia. They were instructed in the articles of faith 
and practice then prevalent, with all of which they complied 
without any hesitation ; and Julian, it was remembered, had 
publicly read the Holy Scriptures in the church of that city. 
But, while the rude, sullen Gallus became a steady and big- 
oted believer, the milder and more philosophic and studious 
Julian took a distaste to the religion in which he was in- 
structed. He had been made familiar with the great writers 
of ancient Hellas by his tutor, the eunuch Mardonius; and 
the admiration he felt for the works of Homer and other 
eminent poets, the veneration for antiquity, and the brilliant 
colors with which the ancient poetic Olympus stood invested, 
as contrasted with the grovelling superstition with which he 
was surrounded ; and the noble spirit and glorious deeds of 
the believers in the ancient creed, compared with the base 
arts and paltry actions of the men of his own time, — all 
combined to operate on the mind of the young prince, and 
he became a believer in the theology of Homer and Hesiod. 
But it was not the charming poetic creed of the early and 
best days of Hellas that Julian adopted ; it was the absurd, 
contemptible mysticism of the New Platonists; and as, in 
his Christianity, he neglected the beautiful simplicity of 
the gospel, confounding it with the intricate metaphysics 
and abject superstition which then prevailed in the church, 
so, in his paganism, he lost the poetic creed of the old times 
in the tasteless, unsubstantial vagaries and allegories of the 
school of Alexandria. In fact, he had not that original 
vigor of intellect which would have emancipated him from 
the spirit of the age. Superstition was the prevailing senti- 
ment, and the philosophic emperor was in his way as deeply 
immersed in it as the most grovelling ascetic. 

According to the emperor's own account, he was a Chris- 
tian till he reached his twentieth year. He then, after being 
instructed by various sophists, was, by the archimage Maxi- 
mus, secretly initiated at Ephesus with all those ceremonies 
which imposture and superstition had imported from Asia, 
and incorporated with the mythic faith of Hellas. During 



340 JULIAN. [a.d. 361. 

his short abode, some years after, at Athens, Julian was sol- 
emnly initiated in the mysteries of Eleusis. Still he was to 
outward appearance a Christian, and the empress Eusebia 
had not probably a shade of doubt respecting the faith of 
her distinguished protege. In Gaul he appears to have still 
dissembled, and to have openly assisted at the Christian wor- 
ship, while in his closet he offered his homage to the Sun 
and Hermes. When he assumed the imperial dignity, he 
disdained all further concealment of his sentiments, and 
boldly proclaimed himself a votary of the ancient gods. 

It may be, perhaps, laid down as an axiom in history, that 
when once a religious or political system has gone out of 
use among any people, its permanent restoration is an im- 
possibility. The power of a monarch or of a political party 
may reestablish it for a time, but when the hand that sus- 
tained it is gone, it sinks back into its previous state of 
neglect and impotence. The efforts of Julian to restore 
paganism, must, therefore, even had his life been prolonged, 
have proved utterly abortive. The system had long been 
crumbling to pieces from internal feebleness and decay ; the 
theism on which it was founded, and of whpse various forms 
Its beautiful mythes were merely the expositions,* had long 
been unknown; and the mystic views of the New Platonists, 
which Julian had adopted, were totally opposite to its spirit. 
To this should be added, that Christianity, corrupt as it then 
was, had, by its noble spirit of benevolence and charity, by 
the sublimity of its original principles, and by the organiza- 
tion of its hierarchy, a moral power such as the old religion 
had not possessed at any period of its prevalence. When 
we view the attempt of Julian in this light, we may feel 
disposed to pity, while we deride the folly of the imperial 
fanatic. 

Julian was by nature just and humane; he was also a 
philosopher and statesman enough to know that persecu- 
tion, if it does not go the full length of extermination, adds 
strength, and numbers, and energy, to the persecuted and 
irritated party. He, therefore, instead of imitating Diocle- 
tian, proclaimed a general toleration. The pagans were 
directed to open their temples, and offer victims as hereto- 
fore ; the contending sects of Christians were commanded 
to abstain from harassinor and tormenting each other. The 
catholic prelates and clergy, whom the Arian Constantius 

* See the author's Mythology of ancient Greece and Itckly. 



A. D. 361.] REFORM IN PAGANISM. 341 

had banished, were accordingly restored to their sees and 
churches.* The real object of all this moderation, we are 
assured by Ammianus, was to increase the mutual animosity 
of the Christian sects, by giving free course to their contro- 
versial spirit while depriving them of the power of extermi- 
nating each other, and thus to prevent their uniting in op- 
position to his ulterior projects. 

We can hardly blame Julian for giving a preference to 
his fellow-believers in civil and military employments. This 
mild form of persecution is the fate of religious and political 
parties in all ages. But even his most partial admirers can- 
not (Ammianus does not) justify the edict which prohibited 
the Galilseans, as he affected to style the Christians, from 
teaching the arts of grammar or rhetoric, i. e. from being 
schoolmasters. By means of this, he expected that the 
Christian youth would either frequent the schools of the 
pagan teachers, and thus probably be converted, or they 
would abstain from them, and thus grow up in ignorance, 
and the church, losing the advantages of learning and cul- 
tivation, sink into contempt. A far more legitimate and 
laudable mode of warfare was his effort to reform paganism 
on the model of Christianity, by introducing into it those 
rules and practices to which the latter seemed to him in- 
debted for its success. He thus desired that the priesthood 
in every city should be composed of persons, without dis- 
tinction of birth or wealth, eminent for the love of gods and 
men ; that the priest should be undefiled in mind and body, 
his reading be solely of a serious and instructive nature, and 
the theatre and the tavern be alike unvisited by him. He 
required that hospitals should be erected in each town ; " for 
it is shameful to us," said he, " that no beggar should be 
found among the Jews, and that the impious Galilseans 
should support not only their own poor, but ours also, while 
these last appear destitute of all assistance from ourselves." 
These were his advice and exhortations to the sacerdotal 
bodies of the temples of Asia Minor, in which country alone 
such were to be found. It can be only these, we may ob- 
serve, that are meant, when the hostility of the priests of 
the heathen to the Christian religion is noticed. 

While Julian abode at Constantinople, ambassadors ar- 
rived from distant countries, even from India and the isle of 
Serendib or Ceylon, with which the subjects of the empire 

* See below, Chapter VI. 
29* 



342 JULIAN. [a. d. 362. 

had now commercial relations. All was tranquil on the 
banks of the Rhine and the Danube, and the Persian mon- 
arch had made proposals of peace. It might therefore have 
been expected that a philosopher in principle and a devotee 
in religion, such as the emperor was, would have been satis- 
fied to apply his whole time and thoughts to the promotion 
of the welfare of his subjects and the extension of his re- 
ligious creed. But Julian, when in Gaul, had been smit- 
ten with the passion for military glory; and the example 
of Alexander the Great, which had fascinated even Juliu!. 
Caesar, urged him to aspire to the conquest of the East. 
He therefore returned a haughty reply to the envoys of 
Sapor, and, in the end of the spring, (362,) he passed 
over to Asia at the head of a formidable army. He made 
little delay on the road; his piety, however, induced him 
to turn aside and offer his devotions to the Mother of the 
Gods at Pessinus, the ancient seat of her worship. He 
arrived, toward the end of the month of June, at Antioch, 
where he resolved to remain till the following spring, when 
he should be prepared to open the campaign with vigor in 
Mesopotamia. 

The people of Antioch received the emperor with loud 
demonstrations of joy. Julian now divided his thoughts be- 
tween preparations for war, the administration of justice, 
and vvhat he regarded as his religious duties. Each day 
numerous victims were sacrificed to the gods, for which 
purpose birds of white plumage were brought even from 
considerable distances; for, in the creed of Julian, the gods 
derived pleasure, if not nourishment, from the holy steam 
which ascended from the altars on which the flesh of victims 
was consumed. He himself frequently slaughtered the sa- 
cred beasts with his own hands, and he sought, in their reek- 
inor entrails, to discover future events. Faithful in the dis- 
charge of all his religious duties, the pious emperor might 
be seen gravely moving along in religious procession amid a 
crowd of those persons of both sexes who led lives of infamy 
in the service of the licentious religions of the East. 

The grove of Daphne, about five miles from Antioch, in 
which stood a stately temple of Apollo, raised by the kings 
of Syria, had long been celebrated as the scene of acts of 
licentiousness most alien from the character of Phoebus 
Apollo, the purest object of Grecian worship, and Daplmic 
manners had long been proverbial. But since the triumph 
of Christianity, the sanctity of the temple of Daphne had 



A.D. 362.] JULIAN AT ANTIOCH. 343 

greatly declined ; and on the day of the festival of the god, 
Julian, who seemed to estimate piety by the number of vic- 
tims, was mortified to find that the only animal that bled on 
the altar of the lord of light was a solitary goose, provided 
at the cost of the sole remaining priest, whose means proba- 
bly did not reach to the purchase of a swan. The glory of 
Daphne had indeed departed ; the emperor's own brother, 
Gall us, had caused the bones of the bishop Babylas, who had 
•riied in prison in the time of Decius, to be transported into 
the sacred precincts, and a stately church to be erected over 
them ; and the grove of Daphne thus, in accordance with 
the superstition then prevalent, became a favorite burial- 
place for the Christian inhabitants of Antioch. But Julian 
resolved to remove the profanation, and restore the temple to 
its pristine sanctity and magnificence. The church of St. 
Babylas was demolished, and the Christian bodies were re- 
moved. On this occasion, the body of the saint was con- 
veyed to Antioch in a lofty car, amid the loud singing of 
psalms by an immense multitude ; and that very night the 
temple of Daphne was consumed by lightning sent from 
Heaven at the prayer of the offended saint, according to the 
Christians of Antioch; by fire applied to it by themselves in 
the opinion of the emperor, who in return shut up their prin- 
cipal church, and seized its wealth. Several of the Christians 
were tortured, and a presbyter, named Theodoret, was be- 
headed ; but no persecution, properly speaking, took place. 
It was different, however, elsewhere; and in Gaza, Csesarea, 
and other towns, the now triumphant pagans exercised the 
most atrocious cruelties on the devoted Christians ; and the 
emperor only gently condemned their excesses. 

The great majority of the people of Antioch were Chris- 
tians in rites and doctrines ; but in practice they were very 
remote from the standard of gospel perfection, and Antioch 
had long been noted as the most luxurious and dissipated 
'city of the East, The strict and austere morals of the em- 
'peror were therefore fully as distasteful to the Antiochians 
as his pagan superstition ; and, as they were a witty and in- 
genious people, they assailed him with the darts of ridicule. 
They mocked at his sacerdotal exercises ; they derided his 
short stature and his efTorts to make his shoulders appear 
broad, and his lona: strides in walkihor. But the grand butt 
of their shafts was his bushy , populous beard, which, in his 
character of philosopher, he sedulously nourished. He took 
his revenge by writing a satire on the Antiochians, whidh 



344 JULIAN. [a. d. 362. 

he named the Beardhater, {Misopogon ;) but he never for- 
gave them, and he publicly declared his intention not to re- 
visit their city. 

At the same time, in order to win the favor of the common 
people, Julian adopted a very questionable policy. The har- 
vest having been deficient, the natural consequences had 
followed ; corn was at a monopoly-price, and capitalists 
made it a matter of speculation. To remedy this evil, the 
emperor, by an edict, fixed a maximum, or highest price, a^ 
which corn might be sold ; and he poured into the market 
422,000 measures of corn drawn from the granaries of other 
towns, and even from Egypt. This corn, as might easily 
have been foreseen, was all bought up by the capitalists ; the 
supply was kept back as before, and the small quantities 
that were brought into the market were sold underhand at 
a price beyond the maximum. Julian was perplexed ; he 
would not or could not be made to see the policy of leaving 
trade to regulate itself; he was persuaded that the scarcity 
was entirely artificial, and produced by the conduct of the 
wealthy land-owners ; and on one occasion he arrested and 
sent to prison the whole senate of Antioch, consisting of 
two hundred members. They were, however, released in the 
evening, but cordiality was never restored between them and 
the emperor; and, as we have seen, they lampooned and rid- 
iculed him, and he satirized them in return. 

Julian, while at Antioch, as a means of mortifying the 
Christians, whom he hated, resolved on restoring the Jews 
to their country, and rebuilding the temple of Jehovah, whom 
he regarded with respect as a national god. He committed 
the task to Alypius, an able and learned Antiochian, who 
had been governor of Britain ; and this officer, being second- 
ed by the governor of the province, set at once about clear- 
ing away the ruins on Mount Moriah ; but a tempest and 
earthquake, and flames which burst from the ground and 
scorched and burned the workmen, prevented the progress 
of the work, and the death of the emperor put an end to 
all thoughts of resuming it. 

The Christians of the time viewed in this event the direct 
interference of Heaven ; and many modern, even Protestant, 
writers take the same view. By so doing, no concession cer- 
tainly is made to the false miracles of the church of Rome, 
and we are very far from holding, that Providence might not 
see fit to interpose in a case of extraordinary importance. 
But we deny such to have been the case in the present in- 



A. D. 363.] TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM. 345 

Stance ; the futility of Julian's efforts against Christianity, 
and the fate which so soon awaited him, could not be un- 
known to Omniscience, and a miracle seems therefore to 
have been superfluous. The present one is, moreover, ex- 
plicable perhaps by natural causes. We know how prone the 
ecclesiastical writers were to convert, partly from ignorance, 
partly from design, natural events into miracles, and also 
how a tale gains in its progress. Rejecting therefore the 
storm and earthquake,* and confining ourselves to the fiery 
explosions to which we have the testimony of Ammianus, it 
has been supposed, with some degree of probability, that the 
phenomenon may come under the head of choke-damp, with 
the cause and effects of which we are now so familiar, and 
that the workmen may have been injured by the air, which 
had now been confined for three centuries in the vaults and 
cavities beneath the site of the temple. Still this explana- 
tion is not without its difficulties ; and, though we ourselves 
cannot regard the event as supernatural, we leave the reader 
to form his own judgment, and 7return to the plain path of 
history. 

In the spring of the year 363, Julian departed from Anti- 
och, and proceeded to Beroea, {Aleppo,) and thence marched 
to Hierapolis, not far from the banks of the Euphrates, at 
which town the troops had been ordered to rendezvous. The 
river was passed without delay; and, as it seems to have been 
the emperor's design to enter the enemy's country by Nisibis 
and Armenia, the army advanced to Carrhge. But, circum- 
stances having caused him to alter his views, he detached 
his relative, Procopius, with Sebastian, ex-duke of Egypt, 
and thirty thousand select troops, directing them to join 
Arsaces, king of Armenia, and, having ravaged the adjacent 
parts of Media, to be prepared to cooperate with him on the 
Tigris when he should have reached that river. He him- 
self, having directed his march, as it were, for that river, 
suddenly turned to the right, and reached Callinicum on 
the Euphrates, along which he proceeded till he came to 
Circesium, the southern limit of the Roman dominion bie- 
yond the river, built at the confluence of the Aboras and 
the Euphrates. 

The imperial army, the largest ever led by a Roman 
emperor against Persia, counted sixty-five thousand men. 

* Yet, according to AMmkn'as, (xxiii. 1,) a shock of an eartJiquabe 
was felt at Constantinople at this very time. 

RR 



346 JULIAN. [a. d. 363 

It was composed of the veteran troops of the East and the 
West, of Scythian {i. e. Sarmatian) auxiliaries, and of bodies 
of the Saracens or Bedoween light horse, who had joined 
the emperor since his passage of the Euphrates. Parallel to 
the march of the army, a fleet moved along the river, com- 
posed of fifty war-galleys, an equal number adapted for the 
formation of bridges, and one thousand vessels of various 
kinds, carrying provisions, arms, and warlike machines. On 
leaving Circesium, the army entered the hostile territory, and 
moved southwards along the Euphrates. It marched in 
three parallel columns : the infantry, which formed the 
strength of the army, led by the emperor in person, occu- 
pied the centre ; Nevitta, at the head of some legions, moved 
along the bank of the river on the right ; while the cavalry, 
under an officer of high rank in the East, named Arinthaeus, 
and the Persian prince Hormisdas, [Hoormuz^)* was placed 
on the left, where the assaults of the enemy were most to be 
apprehended ; and the charge of the rear-guard was com- 
mitted to Dagalaiphus, Victor, and Secundinus, duke of 
Osrhoene. The whole line of march extended nearly ten 
miles in breadth. The country over which the army passed 
was a level, sandy plain, in which were only to be seen the 
wild ass and antelope, the ostrich and the bustard. It was 
destitute of trees, and its only plants were wormwood and 
aromatic reeds and shrubs. On the evening of the sixth day, 
the army reached Anatha, (^Annah,) a town situated on an 
island of the Euphrates, the people of which at first prepared 
to resist ; but they yielded to the instances of Prince Hor- 
misdas, and opened their gates. The next town to which 
the army came stood also in an island : it was named Thilu- 
tha, and was so strong that the emperor judged it prudent to 
be content with the promise of the inhabitants to surrender 
when he should have conquered the interior country. The 
people of the next town made a similar promise ; the re- 
maining towns on the route were found deserted, and were 
pillaged and burnt; and at length the army, in about fifteen 
days after its departure from Circesium, arrived at Mace- 
practa, the frontier town of the ancient Assyria. During 
the latter days of the march, the Persian Surena, and Rho- 

* Hormisdas was a member of the royal family of Persia, who made 
his escape from prison in the troubles which occurred during the minor- 
ity of Sapor. He sought refuge at the court of Constantius, and rose 
to high rank in the Roman army. He was a Christian. 



A. D. 363] PERSIAN WAR. 347 

dosaces, the emir of the tribe of Gassan, (Assanitceum,) had 
been hovering about the army with their light cavalry; and 
on one occasion Hormisdas narrowly escaped becoming 
their captive. 

The army now entered Assyria, and, having surmounted 
the impediments caused by the numerous canals with which 
that province was intersected, arrived at a strong city named 
Perisabor, (Anbar,) situated close to the Euphrates. The 
garrison having despised the summons to surrender, the 
town was invested. A breach was soon effected in a tower 
at one of the angles of the wall, and the garrison, abandon- 
ing the town, retired into the citadel which overhung the 
river. The Romans entered and burned the town, and then 
erected their machines against the citadel. The garrison 
made a gallant defence till they saw a Helepolis, or moving 
tower, advancing against the walls. They then demanded a 
conference with Hormisdas, and, the governor being let down 
from the walls for the purpose, the terms of surrender were 
arranged. The inhabitants, two thousand five hundred in 
number, (for the greater part had made their escape over the 
river,) were allowed to retire, and the fort was then reduced 
to ashes. 

Quitting the banks of the Euphrates, the emperor now 
directed his course toward those of the Tigris. When the 
army had marched about fourteen miles, they found the land 
covered with water, the natives having opened the sluices by 
which they were used to turn the waters over their fields. 
The canals were also full, and it was found necessary to halt 
a day in order to construct bridges of skin-bags, and leathern 
boats, and of the palm-trees which grew so abundantly in 
that region. The difficulties of the route being thus sur- 
mounted, the army reached a large town named Maogamal- 
ca, distant only eleven miles from the suburbs of Ctesiphon. 
As this strong fortress could not be safely left in their rear, 
an immediate siege was resolved on. The emperor himself 
advanced on foot with a few of his guards to reconnoitre the 
site of the town, when suddenly they were fallen on by ten 
Persians who had stolen out by a postern gate, and had crept 
round through the adjacent hillocks. Two of them singled 
out the emperor, and attacked him sword in hand ; but he 
received their strokes on his shield, and ran one of them 
through, and the other was slain by the guards who came to 
his relief The next day, the canal which lay between the 
army and the town was passed by means of bridges, and a 



348 JULIAN. [a. d. 363. 

camp was formed, secured by a double rampart, against the 
attacks of the Surena, and his numerous cavalry. At the 
same time, the Roman horse, under the command of Victor, 
was directed to scour the country as far as the suburbs of 
Ctesiphon. The siege was then commenced in form. The 
garrison defended themselves gallantly, but they were not 
aware of their walls, while openly assailed by rams and other 
engines, being secretly undermined ; and, while they were 
exerting all their power against the enemy, whom they saw, 
fifteen hundred Roman soldiers emerged from the floor of 
one of the temples, and, slaughtering all whom they met, 
opened the gates to their companions. A general massacre 
ensued ; rage and lust burst all restraints ; neither age nor 
sex was spared, and the governor* and eighty of his guards, 
and some of the women, seem alone to have been spared. 
The town was razed, and, it being ascertained that a party 
of the enemy had concealed themselves in the artificial cav- 
erns, which were numerous in those parts, with the intention 
of falling on the rear of the army as it was departing, fires 
of straw and wood were made at the mouths of the caverns, 
and they were thus either smothered, or forced to come out 
and be slain. 

The march being resumed, the army came to a paradise^ 
or royal park walled in, and abundantly stocked with lions, 
bears, and other kinds of Oriental game. The walls were 
instantly broken down, and the soldiers amused themselves 
with slaughtering the savage denizens. 

At length the Roman army beheld the walls and towers 
of Ctesiphon crowning the opposite bank of the Tigris, 
while its suburb of Cochet lay not far from their camp. To 
form the siege of the latter while it could be so easily suc- 
cored from the city on the opposite side of the river, seemed 
a needless and a tedious task ; and to pass the army over for 
the attack on the capital, the fleet from the Euphrates would 
be requisite. The Nahar-malca, or royal canal, which poured 
the waters of that river into the Tigris, was at hand, but it 
discharged itself below Coche, while the army was encamped 
above that city. Julian, however, was aware that Trajan and 
Severus had opened a new course for that canal, which had 
been afterwards dammed up, and eff*aced by the Persians; 
and among the prisoners there chanced to be an old man 

* His name was Nabdates ; he was burnt alive a few days after for 
having used insulting language to Prince Hormisdas. 
t Formerly called Seleucia. 



A. D. 363.] PERSIAN WAR. 349 

who recollected and pointed out its situation. The army 
was immediately set to work, and the Roman fleet speedily 
rode on the Tigris. The broad Nahar-malca was passed 
by a bridge of boats, and the army, approaching Coche, en- 
camped at a stately palace adorned with paintings of the royal 
hunts, and surrounded with rich and well-planted fields. 

It was at this spot that Julian resolved to attempt the pas- 
sage of the Tigris. The difficulties he knew to be great; 
the stream is rapid, the banks are high ; they were occupied 
by a strong force of cavalry, infantry, and elephants, and the 
city of Ctesiphon, with its numerous population and garri- 
son, was at hand. But Julian relied on fortune, who so long 
had stood his friend; and, having previously caused some of 
the strongest of the vessels that carried the provisions and 
machines to be unladen, and eighty soldiers to embark in 
each of them, he summoned his generals to council, and in- 
formed them of his intention of attempting the passage that 
very night. They all remonstrated against it, but in vain ; 
and Victor, to whom the task was committed, prepared to 
obey. As soon as the word was given, five of the vessels 
started, and, running down with the current, made for the 
opposite shore. When they reached it, the enemy attacked 
them, and set them on fire. Julian, on beholding the flame, 
though aware of the truth, cried out that it was the appoint- 
ed signal, and that the landing had been effected. Instantly 
every vessel pushed off* and swept down the stream with such 
speed, that they arrived in time to save both the men and 
the vessels. Many soldiers, in their ardor, trusted themselves 
on their broad shield to the current ; the banks were speed- 
ily won, and the troops formed. They were joined by the 
emperor, and, after a contest of about twelve hours' duration,, 
the Persians fled to Ctesiphon, which the Romans might 
have entered pell-mell with them but for the caution of Vic- 
tor, who feared that they might be overwhelmed by the mul- 
titude of the people. The loss of the Persians was said to 
be two thousand five hundred, that of the Romans, only 
seventy men. The emperor distributed civic, naval, and 
castrensic crowns to those who had most distinguished them- 
selves; and he prepared to offer numerous victims to Mars 
the Avenger.* But of ten oxen of eminent beauty selected 
for this purpose, nine fell to the ground in melancholy mood 

* Perhaps because Augustus had built a temple to this god after the 
recovery of the standards from the Parthians. See above, p. 10. 

CONTIN. 30 



350 JULIAN. [a. d. 363. 

before they approached the altars, and the tenth burst his 
bonds and escaped; and when he was caught and slain, the 
signs in his entrails were of ill omen. At the sight, Julian, 
in indignation, took Jove to witness that he would never 
aorain sacrifice to Mars.* 

It might have been expected that the siege of Ctesiphon, 
a city which had thrice surrendered to the Roman arms, 
would now be commenced without delay. But in the coun- 
cil which was held in the presence of the emperor, to delib- 
erate on the question, it was unanimously agreed that it 
would be highly imprudent to undertake it ; and Julian him- 
self fully concurred in the opinion of the council. Intelli- 
gence also arrived, that, on account of the treacherous con- 
duct of the kinor of Armenia, and the dissension of the Ro- 
man generals, there was now no chance of his being joined 
by the troops sent from Carrhae. To retreat might be dis- 
graceful ; but prudence counselled that a minister, whom 
Sapor had secretly sent to Prince Hormisdas, to propose 
terms of peace, should be admitted to an audience. Unhap- 
pily, Julian recollected that his Macedonian model had 
always rejected the propositions of Darius; and Hormisdas 
was ordered to dismiss the envoy before the soldiers should 
know of his arrival. Julian also resolved, like Alexander, 
to advance and pursue his rival ; and he was encouraged in 
this design by the arrival of a Persian nobleman, who, with 
a train of his followers, came, pretending to seek refuge and 
protection from the cruelty of Sapor ; and describing the 
discontent of the people, and the weakness of the govern- 
ment, offered to be the guide of the Romans. As it would 
be necessary to quit the banks of the Tigris, and the ships 
and stores, if left behind, must inevitably fall into the hands 
of the enemy, Julian issued orders for the whole to be burnt, 
except twelve of the smaller ones, which should be conveyed 
with the army, for the construction of bridges. The discon- 
tent and fears of the troops, however, caused an attempt to 
be made, when too late, to extinguish the flames : and men, 
judging by the event, have condemned the conduct of the 
emperor, whose real error was of a very different kind. 

Quittirjg, therefore, the banks of the Tigris, the Roman 
army entered on the fertile country to the east of that river. 
At first, supplies were had in plenty ; but, as they advanced, 
they found the villages deserted, and the grass and standing 

* Probably in imitation of Augustus. See History of Rome, p. 467. 



A. D. 363.] PERSIAN WAR. 351 

corn in flames. They were frequently obliged to encamp till 
the flames had subsided on the ground over which they were 
to march: the Persian cavalry now began to show itself 
more boldly ; and the treacherous guide, having obtained his 
object, disappeared. Any farther advance vi^as now hope- 
less; the only question was, what line of retreat should be 
adopted. The soldiers were clamorous for returning by the 
route by which they had come ; but the emperor and their 
officers proved to them that the wasted state of the country, 
the inundation of the river, (now swollen by the melting of 
the snows in the mountains,) and the quantity of mosquitoes 
and other insects, from which they had already suffered most 
severely, would render a retreat by that route nearly imprac- 
ticable. It was therefore resolved to turn northwards, and 
endeavor to gain the trans-Tigrian Roman province of Cor- 
duene. As soon as the retreat commenced, the Persians, 
who had hitherto only shown themselves in small parties, 
appeared in greater force, and the Romans had to win their 
way by force of hand. The country still was burnt, and the 
towns were every where deserted. In the district named 
Maranga, a general attack was made by the Persian army ; 
but they were finally repelled with loss, after the action had 
lasted from daybreak to sunset. A truce was then made 
for three days, in order that the wounded on both sides 
might be tended ; but on the part of the Romans there was 
hardly any food for man or beast, and the superior officers 
had to share their own private stores with the common men. 
On this, as on all occasions, the emperor set a noble exam- 
ple. He used only such food as a common soldier would 
have actually disdained, and he caused the provisions of his 
household to be distributed among the troops. The uneasi- 
ness of his mind caused his sleep to be broken, and he used 
to read and write in his tent when thus awaked. As he was 
thus engaged one night, he beheld the Genius of the State, 
who had appeared to him in Gaul, the night before he was 
declared emperor, retreating from the tent with a dejected 
air, his head and cornucopioe shrouded in a veil. He rose 
from his humble couch, and made deprecatory offerings to 
the gods, committing all to their will : as he looked out, he 
beheld a meteor flaming across the sky, and he shuddered 
when he thought it might be the menacing star of Mars. 
Before daylight, he summoned the Tuscan haruspices to his 
tent, to explain the meaning of the sign. They counselled 



8:52 JULIAN. [a. d. 363. 

him not to give battle that day, or, at all events, not to move 
from where he was for at least some hours ; but he took no 
heed of their warnings, and at daybreak (June 26) the army 
get forward. 

The Persians hovered around, as usual. Julian was ri- 
ding unarmed out before his troops to reconnoitre, when he 
heard that the rear was attacked. Snatching up a shield, he 
vi^as hastening to its support ; but he was recalled by intelli- 
gence that the troops in advance, whom he had just quitted, 
were also attacked : he was riding back, when a furious charge 
was made by the Persians on the centre of the left, which 
was yielding to the pressure of their heavy-armed cavalry 
and elephants. He flew to their aid ; at that very moment, 
the Roman light troops drove off the enemy; and, stretching 
out his hands, he was urging on his men to follow up their 
success, and was giving them an example himself, when a 
spear grazed his arm, and, entering his side, pierced the 
lower part of his liver. He attempted to pull it out ; but the 
sharp steel cut his fingers deeply, and he fell from his horse. 
He was taken up by those about him, and conveyed away, 
and committed to the care of the surgeons. When the pain 
was a little assuaged, he called for his horse and arms, that 
he might return to the aid of his troops ; but he soon per- 
ceived that his strength did not correspond with his will. 
Meantime, the action was maintained vigorously on both 
sides ; and the Persians were finally repulsed, with a loss of 
fifty men of rank, and a great number of the common sol- 
diers. The Romans had to lament the death of Anatolius, 
the master of the offices ; and the aged prefect Sallust nar- 
rowly escaped the same fate. 

Julian, aware that he was dying, addressed those who were 
mourning around him. He expressed his satisfaction that it 
had pleased the gods, who had often given an early death as 
their best boon, to withdraw him from the danger of corrup- 
tion : he reflected with pleasure on the innocence of his past 
life, and declared that he had always endeavored to promote 
the welfare of the people, which he regarded as the true end 
of government. He had, therefore, sought to maintain peace, 
and repress license ; and, though it was foretold to him that 
he would perish by steel, he did not shrink from exposing 
himself to danger. He was grateful, he said, to the Supreme 
Being that he had not fallen by a conspiracy, or been taken 
off by a lingering disease, but was thus removed in the midst 



A. D. 363.] DEATH OF JULIAN. 353 

of his glorious career. He would say nothing on the choice 
of his successor, lest he might chance to pass over a worthy 
person, or, by naming some one of whom the army might 
not approve, expose him to danger. When he had conclu- 
ded, he distributed his private property among his friends. 
He rebuked those present for their tears, saying it was a 
mean thing to mourn for a prince who was about to be uni- 
ted to the stars. When they had ceased, he conversed with 
the philosophers, Maximus and Priscus, on the nature of the 
soul, till his wound beginning to bleed afresh, he called for 
a draught of cold water ; and, when he had drunk it, he 
breathed his last, about midnight, in the thirty-second year 
of his age. 

We have devoted so much space to the actions of this 
emperor, that any remarks on his character may appear su- 
perfluous. Yet there is in it so much to interest, that we 
cannot refrain from keeping it in view a little longer, and 
pointing out his virtues as well as his faults, — vices he had 
none, — more especially as he has been so hardly treated by 
those injudicious writers, who think themselves bound to 
portray the enemy of their faith as a perfect monster. The 
time, however, is arrived in which a better knowledge of the 
gospel has removed such narrow prejudice; and the virtues 
of Julian and the crimes of Constantine may be recognized 
without Christianity being supposed to sustain an injury. 

In person, Julian was of middle height, broad-shouldered, 
and well-built. His nose was straight, his eyes bright ; his 
shaggy beard was peaked, his hair was soft and fine. He was 
able to endure great bodily fatigue, and he never shrank from 
toil or danger. He practised, without effort, the four cardi- 
nal virtues, and their attendant moral qualities. His chastity 
was conspicuous ; he had never known a woman when he 
married, and after the death of his wife he thought no more 
of the sex. In his German and his Persian wars, he dis- 
played the talents of an able general, and he was both loved 
and feared by his soldiers. Julian was learned, and at the 
same time himself an elegant writer. His principal faults 
were vanity and superstition. He was too fond of talking, 
and took too much pleasure in light conversation and buf- 
foonery ; he was negligent of his person and dress to a de- 
gree that indicated an originally feeble mind. It is mel- 
ancholy to read of his superstitious regard to portents ; his 
fancied intercourse with the fabled gods of Greece, and his 
extreme love for pouring forth the blood of victims in their 
30* ss 



354 JOVIAN. [a. d. 363. 

honor.* His enmity to the Christians was unjust and little- 
minded ; but their revenge has been ample. Julian was not 
a great man, but he was better qualified to rule than most 
princes; and, though we may not admire, we must esteem 
his character. 



Jovian. 
A. u. 1116—1 117. A. D. 363—364. 

The morning after the death of Julian, a general assem- 
bly of the officers of the army was held for the purpose of 
choosing an emperor; for, as the house of Constantine was 
now extinct, no one could justly put forth any other claim 
than that of merit. They were split into two parties ; Arin- 
thaius, Victor, and the remaining courtiers of Constantius, 
looked out for one of their own party whom they might pro- 
pose ; while Nevitta, Dagalaiphus, and the Gallic officers, 
sought a candidate of their own side. Both, however, agreed 
in the person of the prefect Sallust ; but he declined the 
honor, pleading his age and his infirmities. An officer of 
rank then proposed that they should, for the present, only 
think of extricating the army from the instant perils, and 
that, when they reached Mesopotamia, they might choose an 
emperor at their leisure. But, while they were deliberating, 
some persons saluted as emperor Jovianus, the commander 
of the Domestics, or body-guard. He was immediately in- 
vested with the royal robes, and he rode through the troops, 
who readily acknowledged his authority. 

Jovianus, whom the caprice of fortune thus elevated to the 
purple, was distinguished more by his father's merit than his 
own. He was the son of Count Varronianus, who, after hav- 
ing long served with reputation, was now living in dignified 
retirement. Jovian was tall and comely in person, of a gay 
and cheerful temper, a lover of wine and women, fond of 
literature, at the same time a good soldier, and even a zeal- 
ous Christian. 

As soon as Jovian was proclaimed, victims were slain, and 

*^ " Superstitiogus magis quam sacrorum legitimus ofeseryator, ini?u- 
meras sine parsimonia pecudes mactans, ut sestimaretur si revertasset 
de Parthis boves jam defuturos : Marci illius similis Coesaris in quern 
id accepimus dictum : oi Xtvxoi ^obq MuQxto rw Kaioaqi. 'uiv ov 
ytx'jo'tSi W*«t« a;ioAwju,£^tt." Aminianus, xxv. 4. 



A. D. 363.] PERSIAN WAR. 355 

their entrails inspected. The augurs having pronounced 
that it would be the utter ruin of the army to remain where 
it was, the march was instantly resumed. The Persians, 
imboldened by the intelligence of the death of Julian, con- 
veyed to them by deserters, pressed on with redoubled vigor ; 
but, in spite of their incessant attacks, the Romans succeed- 
ed in reaching Sumere, (Samara,) on the Tigris, about one 
hundred miles above Ctesiphon. Marching up the stream, 
they encamped next night in a valley, at a place named 
Carche, and on the first of July, they arrived at the town of 
Dura, where they were detained for four days, by the perse- 
vering energy of the enemy. The impatient soldiers insisted 
on passing the river at that place ; and, Jovian and his officers 
having remonstrated with them to no purpose, a body of five 
hundred Gauls and Sarmatians were directed to try if they 
could swim across the stream. They made the attempt at 
night, and easily succeeded, and the impatience of the sol- 
diers could only be restrained by the promise of the engineers 
that they would construct bridges of inflated skins. 

Should the Romans succeed in passing the river, or in 
reaching the frontiers of Corduene, which were only a hun- 
dred miles distant, they would be out of danger, and might 
continue the war with advantage. Sapor, therefore, re- 
solved not to let slip the occasion of concluding a treaty, 
while they were in his power. He accordingly despatched 
the Surena and another pobleman to the Roman camp, to 
signify that, on certain conditions, their sovereign, out of 
his clemency, would permit the emperor and the remnant of 
his army to depart in safety. Sallust and Arinthajus were 
sent to the Persian monarch, by whom they were artfully 
detained for four entire days, during which the army suffered 
severely from the want of food. The terms which Sapor in- 
sisted on, were the absolute cession of the five provinces be- 
yond the Tigris, and the surrender of the cities of Nisibis, 
Singara, and the Moors' Camp, (Castra Maurorum.) He 
also required that no aid should be given to the king of Ar- 
menia, at any future time, against the Persians. To these 
severe and humiliating conditions Jovian acceded, only 
stipulating that the inhabitants of Nisibis and Singara should 
be permitted to depart with their movable property. A 
peace was then concluded for thirty years, and hostages of 
rank were exchanged on both sides. 

This was the most inglorious treaty ever concluded by 
Rome, for it was the first by which she had abandoned terri- 



356 JOVIAN. [a. d. 363. 

tory. The conquests of Trajan had, it is true, been aban- 
doned by Hadrian and Aurelian, but these were voluntary 
cessions, dictated by political wisdom ; the treaty of Dura 
was a plain confession of inferiority, a barter of territory for 
life and liberty. Ammianus, who was present, speaks of it 
with the grief and indignation of a gallant soldier ; and he 
maintains that, in the four days that were spent in negotia- 
tion, the army might have reached Corduene, though it was 
a hundred miles distant. But he seems to have forgotten 
that the incessant attacks of the Persians had already forced 
the army to halt at Dura ; and he does not explain how an 
army of 60,000 men could have marched one hundred miles 
in four days, without provisions, and continually assailed by 
an active and persevering foe. Eutropius, who was also 
present, is, perhaps, more correct in saying that the peace, 
though inglorious, was necessary. But the original error 
may be charged on Julian, who should have repassed the Ti- 
gris when he found himself unable to undertake the siege of 
Ctesiphon ; and perhaps it was death alone that saved him 
from the disgrace of concluding the treaty of Dura. 

The Roman soldiers hastened to pass to the farther bank 
of the river. Some crossed on inflated skins, leading their 
horses by the bridle ; others got over in the boats which had 
been brought with the army. Some of the more impatient, 
who had not waited for the signal for the passage, were 
drowned, in their attempts to swim across; or, if they reached 
the other side, were slain or carried away for slaves, by the 
Saracens. When the whole army had effected its passage, 
the march was directed for the Roman territory. The ruins 
of the once impregnable Atra were passed, and, after a 
march of seventy miles, which occupied six days, over an 
arid plain, which only produced bitter plants and brackish 
water, the army reached the castle of Ur, where it was met 
by a small convoy of provisions, sent from the army of Pro- 
copius and Sebastian. The troops made a halt there for a 
few days, of which the emperor took the advantage for send- 
ing appointments to offices of trust and importance to those 
whom he thought best calculated to support his interests in 
the West. When the supply of provisions was exhausted, 
the army renewed its march ; and the famine which it expe- 
rienced was so great, that a modius (201bs.) of meal, when- 
ever it chanced to be found, was sold for ten pieces of gold. 
At the town of Thilsaphata, the emperor was met by Sebas- 
tian and Procopios, and their principal officers; and the 



A. D. 363.] CHRISTIANITY REESTABLISHED. 35"7 

army finally encamped under the walls of Nisibis, which 
city shame prevented Jovian from entering, though earnestly 
entreated by the people. 

The following day, Bineses, a Persian nobleman, who was 
one of the hostages sent with the army, called on the emper 
ror to fulfil his promise, and surrender the town. Jovian 
having acceded to his demand, he entered, and displayed the 
banner of Persia from the citadel. Nothing could exceed 
the grief and indignation of the Nisibenes. They implored 
the emperor not to force them to migrate, affirming that, even 
unaided, they were able to maintain their town against all 
the power of Persia. But Jovian, alleging a regard for his 
oath, was deaf to their entreaties ; and at length, exasperated 
at an advocate named Silvanus, who cried out, when he saw 
a crown presented to him by the citizens, " May you be thus 
crowned, O emperor, by the remaining cities ! " he issued 
orders for those to depart within three days who were not 
willing to be subjects of the king of Persia. The grief and 
lamentation were naturally great, and the loss of property 
was considerable, owing to the want of beasts of burden to 
convey it away. A new quarter was built at Amida for the 
reception of the exiles, which city, in consequence, resumed 
its former importance. Singara and the Moors' Camp were 
surrendered in like manner, and Jovian then led his troops 
to Antioch. The remains of the late emperor were com- 
mitted to the charge of Procopius, to be conveyed to Tarsus. 

The attachment of Jovian to the Christian faith was well 
known. On the march to Antioch, the Labarum was again 
displayed. By a circular epistle, addressed to the governors 
of the provinces, he declared the Christian faith to be the 
religion of the empire ; all the edicts of Julian against it 
were abolished, and the church was restored to its posses- 
sions and immunities. The prelates thronged to the court 
of the Christian emperor • and the venerable Athanasius, 
although seventy years of age, undertook, at that advanced 
season of the year, a journey from Alexandria to Antioch, 
in order to confirm him in the path of orthodoxy. By a 
wise and humane edict, Jovian calmed the fears of his pagan 
subjects, proclaiming universal toleration, except for the 
practisers of magic arts. 

Impatient to reach the capital, Jovian remained only 
six weeks at Antioch. He first marched to Tarsus, where 
he made a brief halt, and gave directions relating to the 
tomb of JuliaPf 4^^t Ty^ii^ jft Qapgatjopia, he was met by 



358 VALENTINIAN, VALENS. [a. D. 364. 

deputies, sent to assure him of the obedience of the armies 
and people of the West. On the 1st of January, 364, he 
assumed the consulate at Ancyra, with his infant son for his 
colleague, whose crying, and reluctance to be carried in the 
curule chair, were regarded as ominous. He thence pro- 
ceeded toward the capital ; but, having supped heartily one 
night, (Feb. 17,) when he halted at Dadastana, a little town 
on the frontiers of Bithynia, he was found dead in his bed 
the following morning. Various causes were assigned for 
his death ; but the most probable one was his having lain in a 
recently plastered room, in which there was a large fire of 
charcoal. He was in the 33d year of his age, and he had 
not reigned quite eight months. 



CHAPTER v.* 

VALENTINIAN, VALENS, GRATIAN, VALEN- 
TINIAN II., AND THEODOSIUS. 

A. u. 1117—1148. a. d. 364—395. 

ELEVATION OF VALENTINIAN AND OP VALENS. PROCOPIUS. 

GERMAN WARS. RECOVERY OF BRITAIN. REBELLION 

IN AFRICA. QUADAN WAR. DEATH OF VALENTINIAN. 

HIS CHARACTER, GRATIAN. THE GOTHS. THE HUNS. 

THE GOTHIC WAR. BATTLE OF HADRIANOPLE, AND 

DEATH OF VALENS. — -RAVAGES OF THE GOTHS. THEO- 
DOSIUS. SETTLEMENTS OF THE GOTHS. MAXIMUS. 

DEATH OF GRATIAN. DEFEAT OF MAXIMUS. MASSACRE 

AT THESSALONICA. CLEMENCY OF THEODOSIUS. DEATH 

OF VALENTINIAN II. DEFEAT AND DEATH OF EUGENIUS. 

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF THEODOSIUS. STATE OF THE 

EMPIRE. 

Valentiman and Valens. 

A. u. 1117—1128. A. D. 364—375. 

The death of the emperor Jovian did not prevent the 
advance of the army ; and while it was on its march for 
Nicaea, the generals and civil officers met in frequent delib- 

* Authorities : Ammianus, Zosimus, the Epitomators, and Ecclesi- 
astical Historians. 



A. D. 364.] CHARACTER OF TALENTINIAN. 359 

eration on the choice of an emperor. All the suffrages were 
united in favor of the prefect Sallust; but he again refused 
the imperial dignity, both for himself or for his son, alleg- 
ing the age of the one and the inexperience of the other. 
Various persons were named and rejected : at length all 
united in approbation of Valentinian, who was then at An- 
cyra, in command of the second school of the Scutarians; 
and an invitation was sent to him to repair to Nicsea, where 
the solemn election was to be held. 

Valentinian was a Pannonian by birth, son of Count Gra- 
tian, a distinguished officer. He had himself served with 
great credit, and was now in the forty-third year of his age. 
In person he was tall and handsome. He was chaste and 
temperate in his habits ; his mind had been little cultivated, 
and he was unacquainted with the Greek language, and with 
literature in general. He was a Christian in religion, and 
he had offended the emperor Julian by the public expression 
of his contempt for the rites of paganism. 

Every prudent measure was adopted by the friends of 
Valentinian to prevent the appearance of a competitor for the 
empire. No time, it might therefore be supposed, would have 
been lost in causing him to be acknowledged ; yet it was not 
till the second day after his arrival at Nicaea that he let him- 
self be seen ; the first happening to be the Bissextile, a day 
noted as unlucky in the annals of Rome. On the evening 
of that day, at the suggestion of Sallust, it was forbidden, on 
pain of death, for any man of high rank to appear the next 
morning in public. At daybreak, the impatient troops all 
assembled without the city ; Valentinian advanced, and, 
having ascended a lofty tribunal, was unanimously saluted 
emperor. He was then arrayed in the imperial habit, and 
was proceeding to address the assembled troops, when a 
general cry arose for him to name a colleague ; for late events 
had made even the meanest perceive the danger of an un- 
settled succession. The tumult increased, and menaced to 
become serious, when the emperor, by his authority, stilled 
the clamor, and, addressing them, declared that he felt as well 
as they the necessity of an associate in the toils of govern- 
ment, but that the choice required time and deliberation. 
He assured them that he would make the choice with all con- 
venient speed, and in conclusion promised them the usual 
donative. Their clamors were converted into acclamations, 
and the emperor was conducted to the palace, surrounded by 
eagles and banners, and guarded by all the troops. 



360 VALENTINIAN, VALENS. [a. D. 365. 

The word was given to march for Nicomedia. Meantime 
Valentinian called a council of his principal officers to delib- 
erate on the choice of a colleague, though he had probably 
already, in his own mind, fixed on the person. All were 
silent but the free-spoken Dagalaiphus, who said, ** If you 
love your own family, most excellent emperor, you have a 
brother ; if the state, seek whom you may invest with the 
purple." Valentinian was offended, but he concealed his 
feelings. The army marched for the Bosporus, and, soon 
after their arrival at Constantinople, (Mar. 28,) the emperor 
assembled them in a plain near the city, and presented to 
them his brother Valens, as his colleague in the empire. In 
this choice, he proved that natural affection was stronger in 
his breast than regard for the public happiness ; for Valens, 
though in his thirty-sixth year, had never borne any employ- 
ment, or showed any distinguished talent. As none, however, 
ventured to dissent, the choice seemed to be made with the 
general approbation. 

A general reformation of the administration of the empire 
was effected in ♦he course of the year. Most of the officers 
of the palace and governors of provinces appointed by Julian, 
were dismissed ; but the whole proceeding was regulated by 
equity. In the spring of the following year, (365,) the two 
emperors quitted the capital of the East, and at the palace 
of Median a, three miles from Naissus, they made a formal 
division of the empire, and parted — never again to meet. 
Valentinian, reserving to himself the West, committed the 
East, including Greece and the country south of the Lower 
Danube, to the rule of his brother. The able generals and 
great officers were also divided between them ; to the inex- 
perienced Valens were assigned the services of Sallust, Vic- 
tor, Arinthaeus, and Lupicinus ; among those whom Valen- 
tinian retained for himself, was the intrepid Dagalaiphus. 

Valens had soon to contend for his empire. Procopius, 
afler the funeral of the emperor Julian, had retired to his 
estates in Cappadocia, where he lived in peace, till an officer 
and soldiers appeared, sent by the new emperors to arrest 
him. He made his escape to the sea-coast, and sought refuge 
among the barbarians of the country of Bosporus; but, after 
some time, weary of the hardships and privatioi?? he endured, 
he came secretly to Bithynia, and sheltered himself there in 
various retreats. He at length ventured into the capital, 
where two of his friends, a senator and a eunuch, afforded 
him concealment. He there observed the discontent of the 



A. D. 365.] PROCOPius. 361 

people, who despised Valens, and detested his father-in-law, 
Petronius, a cruel, hardhearted man, who seemed to have, 
no other desire than that of stripping every man of his prop- 
erty, claiming with this view the payment of debts due to thei 
state, even so far back as the reign of Aurelian. Imbold- 
ened by this aspect of affairs, Procopius resolved to acquire 
the empire, or perish in the attempt. The conjuncture was 
favorable ; for. Sapor having resumed hostilities, Valens had 
passed over to Asia to take the field against him. While he 
was in Bithynia, he learned that the Goths were preparing to 
invade Thrace, which was now unguarded. He therefore 
sent back some of his troops; and, as they had to pass through 
Constantinople, Procopius seized the occasion of attempting 
to gain over two Gallic cohorts, which had halted in that 
city. His promises and the memory of Julian prevailed with 
them. At the dawn of day, Procopius appeared in their 
quarters, like one risen from the dead, and, having renewed 
his promises, was saluted emperor. They escorted him 
thence to the tribunal. The people at first were silent and 
indifferent; but, a few hired voices having set the exam- 
ple, they joined in the acclamation of emperor. Procopius 
then took possession of the palace ; he displaced the officers 
of Valens, and secured the gates of the city and the entrance 
of the port. Numbers flocked to his standard ; the troops, as 
they arrived from Asia, were seduced ; those on the northerm 
frontier were induced to declare for him, and the Gothic- 
princes to promise a large body of auxiliaries. Faustina, the 
widow of Constantius, joined his party, and he carried about 
with him her daughter Constantia, a child only five years old. 
He thus endeavored to make his cause appear to be that of 
the house of Constantine against the upstart Pannonians. 

When Valens heard of the events at Constantinople, he 
gave way to the most abject despair, and even meditated re- 
signing the purple, till he was brought back to nobler thoughts 
by the remonstrances of his officers. He then sent the 
Jovian and Herculian legions against the usurper, who waS' 
now at Nicaea. Procopius met them on the banks of the 
Sangarius; and, when the troops were on the point of enga- 
ging, he advanced alone into the midst, and, addressing the 
opposite legions, induced them to declare for him. Valens, 
nevertheless, advanced to Nicomedia, having sent one of his 
generals to invest Nicaea ; and he himself soon after laid siege- 
to Chalcedon. But the besiegers were beaten off at Nicaea, 
and Valens, whose army was in want of provisions, and who 

CONTIN. 31 TT 



362 VALENTINIAN, VALENS. [a. D. 366, 

feared to be attacked in the rear by the garrison of Nicsea, 
retired with all speed to Ancyra, leaving Procopius master 
of Bithynia. At Ancyra, he was joined by Lupicinus, with a 
strong body of troops from Syria. He then gave the com- 
mand to Arinthaeus, who advanced against the rebels that 
were at Dadastana, under the command of one Hyperectri- 
ses, a man of low rank, whom Procopius had raised out of 
friendship. Arinthaeus, when he beheld him, called out to 
the soldiers to bind their commander and deliver him up ; and 
such was his ascendency over their minds that they obeyed 
his mandate. Procopius, however, made himself master of 
Gyzicus on the Hellespont. He then unwisely suffered his 
soldiers to plunder the house of Arbetio,* who was living in 
retirement ; and, instead of advancing at once into Asia, 
where the people would probably have declared for him, he 
thought only of collecting money for carrying on the war. 

In the spring, (366,) Valens advanced into Galatia, and, as 
Procopius carried the infant daughter of Constantius with 
him to the field, he invited the offended Arbetio to repair to 
his camp; and this aged general of Constantine's, taking off 
his helmet, and displaying his hoary locks, advanced toward 
the troops of Procopius, and, addressing the soldiers as his 
children and the sharers of his former toils, implored them to 
follow himself, who was, as it were, their parent, rather than 
that profligate adventurer and common robber. Many were 
thus induced to desert ; and, when Procopius gave battle to 
the imperial troops at Nacolia in Phrygia, Agilo, an officer 
of rank, and several of his men, went over to the emperor 
in the heat of the action. Procopius, seeing all lost, fled on 
foot to the mountains, with two companions, by whom he 
was treacherously seized next day, and delivered bound to 
the emperor. His head was instantly struck off; the two 
traitors shared his fate. Judicial inquiries ensued ; the rack 
was in constant use ; the executioner was incessantly em- 
ployed : neither age, sex, nor rank, was spared, and the re- 
sults of the victory of Nacolia were more direful than the 
most terrible civil war. 

As nothing of very great importance, in a political sense, 
occurred for some years in the East, we will devote our pages 
henceforth to the actions of Valentinian. 

The absence of the Roman armies and the intelligence 
of the death of Julian having inspirited the Alemans, they 

* See above, p. 326. 



A. D. 366—368.] ALEMANNIC WAR. 363 

passed the Rhine in the beginning of January, 366, and 
proceeded to ravage Gaul in their usual manner. The 
Counts Charietto and Severian were defeated and slain by 
them. But Jovinus, the master of the cavalry, having taken 
the command of the army destined to act against them, 
surprised and cut to pieces tu^o of their divisions, and, en- 
gaging the third in the vicinity of Chalons, {Catalauniy) de- 
feated them after a w^ell-contested action, vi^ith a loss of 
6,000 slain and 4,000 wounded, that of the Romans being 
only twelve hundred men. For this victory, Jovinus was, 
on his return to Paris, justly honored with the consulate. 

Some time after, (368,) an Alemannic chief, named Ran- 
do, surprised the city of Mentz, (Moguntiacum,) on the day of 
one of the Christian festivals, and carried away a great num- 
ber of the inhabitants. Valentinian, resolved to take ven- 
geance on the whole nation, ordered Count Sebastian to 
invade their country from the south, with the armies of Italy 
and Illyricum, while he himself and his son Gratianus should 
cross the Rhine at the head of the troops of Gaul. They 
passed the river without opposition ; as they advanced, no 
enemy appeared; the deserted villages were burnt, and the 
cultivated lands laid waste. At length they learned that the 
enemy had occupied a lofty mountain, the north side of 
which alone was of easy ascent. Valentinian, having posted 
Count Sebastian at that side to intercept the fugitives, gave 
the signal to advance ; and the Roman soldiers, in spite of 
all impediments, won their way up the steep sides of the 
mountain. When they had attained the summit, they 
charged the enemies vigorously, and drove them down the 
northern side, where they were intercepted and slaughtered 
by Count Sebastian. Valentinian and his son then returned 
to Treves for the winter, and celebrated their victory by 
magnificent triumphal games. Instead of again invading 
Germany, the prudent emperor resolved to provide for the 
defence of Gaul ; and he caused a chain of forts and castles 
to be constructed, chiefly along the left bank of the Rhine, 
from its source to the ocean. The Germans made various 
attempts to interrupt the works, especially those on the right 
bank of the river, and sometimes with success ; but the em- 
peror completed his design, and secured the tranquillity of 
Gaul for the remainder of his reign. 

The coasts of Gaul and Britain were now infested by the 
invasions of the pirates of the North, who, united under the 
name of Saxons, (that of the people of the neck of the Cim- 



364 VALENTINIANj VALENS. [a. D. 371. 

brie peninsula,) had long since commenced that series of 
plundering excursions which afterwards led to such im- 
portant consequences. A large body of these freebooters 
having penetrated into Gaul, (371,) Severus, the master of 
the infantry, w^as sent with a considerable force to oppose 
them. The Saxons, when they beheld the number and the 
arms of the Romans, declined the combat, and offered to 
supply a select number of their youth for the Roman service, 
as the condition of a safe retreat. The treaty was con- 
cluded, the condition fulfilled, and the Saxons set out for 
the coast. But, in a wooded valley on the way, a chosen 
body of Roman infantry was posted in ambush to attack 
them as they passed. Some, however, of the soldiers rising 
before their time, the freebooters became aware of the 
treachery that was meditated, and stood on their defence.* 
The Romans were on the point of destruction, when a body 
of cuirassiers, who had been posted with the same design 
on another part of the road, hearing the din of combat, 
hastened to the spot, and the unfortunate Saxons, assailed in 
front and rear, were cut to pieces ; all who escaped the 
sword were reserved for the sports of the amphitheatre. It 
is not necessary to express our disgust at this piece of 
treachery ; but even in her best days Rome did not shrink 
from breach of faith and contempt of engagements. 

The coasts of Britain suffered equally with those of Gaul 
from the inroads of the northern pirates, and this now 
wealthy and civilized island was, in addition, subject to the 
ravages of a domestic enemy; for, the avarice of the military 
commanders causing them to defraud their soldiers of their 
pay, and to sell discharges or exemptions from service, the 
discipline of the troops was at an end, and the highways 
were filled with robbers. The Picts and Scots, as the un- 
subdued natives of the northern part of the island were 
called, poured their savage hordes down into the now de- 
fenceless province, and ravaged it far and wide. The em- 
peror, when intelligence of their devastations reached him, 
selected first Severus, and then Jovinus, for the command in 
Britain ; but he finally committed it to Count Theodosius, a 
Spaniard by birth, and an officer of approved merit and 
capacity. 

Theodosius landed at Sandwich, {Rutupice,) whence he 

* "Ac licet," says Ammianus, "Justus quidam arbiter rerum factum 
incusabit perfidum et deforme, pensato tamen negotio non fecit indigne 
manum latronum exitialem tandem, copia data, captam." 



A. D. 369.] RECOVERY OF BRITAIN. 365 

advanced to London : he then led his troops against the 
barbarians, and attacked and routed their scattered bands, 
recovering a large quantity of booty and captives. By pub- 
lishing an amnesty, he induced the soldiers who had deserted 
to return to their standards, and he speedily cleared the Ro- 
man part of the island of its northern invaders. He restored 
all the cities and fortresses that had suffered injury or decay. 
The province which he recovered from the enemy he named 
Valentia, from the emperor.* On his return to court, (369,) 
Theodosius was promoted to the dignity of master of the 
horse, and given the command on the Upper Danube, where 
he acted with his usual success against the Alemans. He 
was then chosen to suppress a revolt in Africa. 

The military commandant in that province, Count Roma- 
nus, was one of those officers, so common under all despotic 
governments, who, heedless of justice and of the welfare of 
the people, think only of gratifying their pride and avarice. 
Relying on the influence of his kinsman Remigius, the mas- 
ter of the offices, he set at nought the prayers and complaints 
of the provincials, and he suffered them to become the prey 
of the barbarians if they did not come up to his demands. 
The people of Tripolis, who had thus been abandoned to 
the Gsetulians, ventured to send deputies with their com- 
plaints to the emperor; and the charge of examining into 
the state of the province was committed to the notary Palla- 
dius. But this man had been selected by the influence of 
Remigius, and consequently his report asserted the inno- 
cence of Romanus, and the falsehood of the charges made 
by the Tripolitans. The deaths and mutilations of some 
of their most distinguished citizens, under a barbarous de- 
cree of the deceived emperor, ensued ; and Romanus contin- 
ued his career of tyranny and extortion till his excesses forced 
the people to declare for a Moorish prince, who had been 
driven into insurrection. 

The name of this prince was Firmus, the son of Nabal. 
In a domestic quarrel, after the death of his father, he hap- 
pened to kill one of his brothers; and Romanus, prompted 

* " Recuperatamque provineiam, quae in ditionem concesserat hos- 
tium, ita reddiderat statui pristino, ut eodem referente et rectorem ha- 
beret legitimum, et Valentia deinde vocaretur arbitrio Principis velut 
ovantis." Am. Mar. xxviii. 3. This does not justify the language of 
Gibbon, that Theodosius " with a strong hand confined the trembling 
Caledonians to the northern angle of the island ; and perpetuated, by 
the name and settlement of the new province of Valentia, the gforiies 
of the reign of Valentinian." 
^ 31* 



366 VALENTINIAN, VALENS. [a. D. 373-376. 

by hatred or avarice, or it may be by a regard for justice, 
showed such a determination to punish him, that Firmus 
saw that he must submit to be executed or appeal to his 
sword. He chose the latter alternative; thousands flocked 
to his standard : Romanus proved unable to resist him, and 
the charge of reducing him was committed to the able Theo- 
dosius, (373.) The contest between this officer and Firmus 
resembled that between Metellus and Jugurtha, in the same 
country. The arts of the African were encountered with cor- 
responding dissimulation ; the Roman general, at the head of 
an expedite force of less than 4,000 men, traversed the coun- 
try in all directions, and a Moorish prince, with whom Fir- 
mus had sought refuge, resolved to imitate the conduct of 
Bocchus, and obtain the favor of the victor by the surrender 
of the fugitive. Firmus,^ however, anticipated his treachery 
by a voluntary death. 

The fate of Theodosius himself may here be told. He 
had committed Romanus to safe custody on his landing in 
Africa, and abundant evidence of that officer's guilt had 
been procured. But court favor availed to procure delay ; 
bribery brought forward friendly witnesses, and forgery pro- 
duced favorable documents; and the final result was, that the 
guilty Romanus escaped with impunity, while the innocent 
Theodosius, after death had removed Valentinian, who knew 
his worth, was, through court intrigue, seized and beheaded 
at Carthage, on a vague suspicion that he was grown too 
powerful for a subject ! (376.) 

While Theodosius was engaged in the reduction of Af- 
rica, a war with the once formidable Q,uadans engaged the 
arms of Valentinian in person. In pursuance of his plan 
of securing the banks of the frontier rivers by fortresses, the 
ground for one of them was marked out on what the dua- 
dans claimed as their territory. On their complaint, Equi- 
tius, who commanded in Illyricum, suspended the works till he 
should have received further instructions from the emperor. 
His enemy Maximin, the tyrannic prefect of Gaul, seized this 
occasion for injuring him in the mind of Valentinian, and of 
procuring the command of the province of Valeria (the scene 
of the dispute) for his own son Marcellinus. The passion- 
ate and credulous emperor was easily induced to comply 
with his desire, and that important command was intrusted 
to an inexperienced and insolent youth. On his arrival in 
the province, Marcellinus caused the works which Ecjuitius 
had suspended to be resumed; and when Gabinius, the Q,ua- 



A.D. 375.] Q,UADAN WAR. 367 

dan king, modestly remonstrated, he invited him to a ban- 
quet, affecting a willingness to comply with his wishes, and 
caused him, as he was departing from it, to be assassinated. 
The murder of their king exasperated the duadans ; and, 
having procured the aid of a body of horse from their usual 
allies, the Sarmatians, they crossed the Danube, and invaded 
Pannonia. It was now the harvest-time, and the population 
were all engaged in their rural toils. The slaughter of the 
defenceless peasantry was therefore immense, and huge 
quantities of booty were carried over the Danube. The 
ravages of the invaders extended to the very walls of Sirmi- 
ura. The two only legions which Equitius could bring into 
the field were cut to pieces. The Sarmatians, following the 
example of their allies, invaded Mcesia; but the young Theo- 
dosius, who, though only a youth, held the post of duke of 
that frontier, routed them in several encounters, and forced 
them to retire, and sue for peace. 

In the following spring, (375,) the emperor Valentinian 
quitted Treves, his ordinary residence, and, at the head of 
the greater part of the troops of Gaul, appeared on the 
banks of the Danube. He crossed that river, and, having 
devastated the duadan country far and wide, repassed it 
without having lost a single man of his army. As he in- 
tended to return and complete the destruction of the Q,ua- 
dans in the following year, he fixed his winter quarters at a 
place named Bregilio, on the banks of the Danube, near the 
site of the modern city of Presburg. While he abode there, 
he was waited on by ambassadors from that people, suing 
for peace in the humblest terms. In his reply, he gave a 
loose to his violent passions, reproaching the envoys and 
those who sent them, in the most opprobrious terms. The 
violence of his exertions caused him to burst a blood-vessel, 
and he fell back speechless into the arms of his attendants. 
He expired within a few hours, (Nov. 17,) in the fifty-fifth 
year of his age, and after a reign of twelve years wanting 
one hundred days. 

Valentinian is praised as a brave soldier, a lover of justice, 
a man frugal, temperate, and chaste, in private life. He alle- 
viated, when he could, the burdens of his subjects ; he was a 
rigid maintainer of discipline in the army. Above all, he 
was tolerant in religion, and did not seek to impose his own 
faith on his subjects by force or by disqualifications. On the 
other hand, he was choleric and cruel ; the slightest offences 
were punished by a cruel death, and the sentence at times 



368 VALENS, GRATIAN, ETC. [a. D. 375. 

was passed in a tone of barbarous jocularity. He had two 
she-bears, which he named Gold-grain {Mica aurea) and In- 
nocence. These animals, who were accustomed to tear 
human victims, were such favorites with him that he caused 
their dens to be constructed near his own bed-chamber, and 
assigned them keepers, whose task was to foster their natural 
ferocity. We are not informed of the fate of Gold-grain, 
but Innocence, after a long course of service, was let loose 
in the woods. 



F«/cw5, Gratiarty Valentinian II, 
A. u. 1128—1131. A. D. 375—378. 

The late emperor had, in the fifth year of his reign, asso- 
ciated in the empire with himself and his brother, his son 
Gratian, then a boy in his ninth year. This prince, who 
was now in his seventeenth year, was residing at Treves 
when the death of his father occurred. His absence im- 
boldened two officers of rank, Merobaudes and Equitius, to 
make an attempt to advance their own interest by adding to 
the number of the emperors ; and, having contrived to re-^ 
move the Gallic troops, from whom they apprehended oppo- 
sition, they brought to the camp Valentinian, the half-brother 
of Gratian, a child only four years old, who was residing 
with his mother, the empress Justina, at a country-seat one 
hundred miles distant from Bregilio, and invested him with 
the purple. Gratian, a prudent and moderate prince, did 
not show any resentment at this act of assumption. He ac- 
cepted his infant colleague, to whom he acted as a kind and 
attentive guardian. The portion of the empire assigned to 
the young emperor was Illyricum, Italy, and Africa; and he 
and his mother fixed their residence at Milan. 

Since the fall of Procopius, the emperor Valens had 
reigned in security. The settlement of the thrones of Ibe- 
ria and Armenia had caused some hostile demonstrations 
between him and the great Sapor; but the Roman was 
timid, and age had softened the energy of the Persian, and 
their differences were settled by negotiation. After the death 
of his brother, Valens found himself obliged to take the field 
in person against a formidable enemy; and the fall of the 
Roman empire is, with some appearance of reason, dated 
from this inauspicious period. 



A. D. 375.] THE GOTHS. 369 

The great Gothic nation, whose steps we have traced 
from the North to the Euxine, consisted of two main stems, 
the Ostrogoths, or East-goths, and the Visigoths, or West- 
goths. The monarch of the former, named Hermanric, had, 
according to the chroniclers of his nation, at the advanced 
age of eighty years, the period when most men have ceased 
from their labors, commenced a career of conquest which 
extended his dominion back to the shores of the Baltic. 
The kings of the Visigoths were obliged to renounce the 
royal title, and be content with the humbler rank of Judges; 
and Hermanric was the acknowledged monarch of Scythia. 
The aid given to Procopius having caused hostilities between 
him and the emperor Valens, the Gothic sovereign committed 
the conduct of the war to Athanaric, one of the Judges of 
the Visigoths; it was terminated by a treaty in the year 369, 
and the Goths remained tranquil till the year of the death 
of Valentinian, when the appearance of an enemy from the 
remote regions of the East precipitated them on the Roman 
empire. 

The extensive plains of northern Asia, from the confines 
of Europe, or rather from those of the territory of the great 
Slavonian portion of the human family, to the shores of the 
eastern ocean, have from time immemorial been the abode 
of two races of men. The one, known to the ancients by 
the name of Scythians, to the moderns by that of Turks, 
has always occupied the western portion of these plains; and 
it is of this people that historians speak when they narrate 
the wars and conquests of the Scythians. They are tall, 
well-formed, and fair, and belong to what is termed the 
Caucasian or Indo-German portion of mankind. The other 
race, long unknown to the ancients, are termed Mongols or 
Tatars; their original seats are to the east of those of the 
Turks ; and their physical qualities, such as their extreme 
ugliness, their thin beards, the great breadth between their 
eyes, and other marks, indicate them to belong to a different 
portion of the human race. 

To the south of the seats of the Mongols lies the exten- 

• . . . . ® 

sive empire of China, the inhabitants of which appear to 
belong to the Mongol family. The annals of this people 
tell of numerous wars between them and their barbarous 
kinsmen of the north. Some time before the period of 
which we write, the arms of China had prevailed ; the power 
of the Mongols had been broken, and a large portion of 



370 VALENS, GRATIAN, ETC. [a. D. 375-376. 

their warriors had, with their flocks and herds, moved west- 
ward in quest of new settlements. The Huns, as that por- 
tion of the Mongols of whom we treat were named, ad- 
vanced till they encountered the Alans, who dwelt between 
the Volga and the Don, or Tanais, on the banks of which 
latter stream the forces of the two nations engaged. The 
king of the Alans was slain, and victory crowned the arms 
of the Huns. A portion of the vanquished people migrated ; 
the rest submitted, and were incorporated with the conquer- 
ors, who then entered the territories of the Gothic monarch, 
(375,) whose tyranny had made him odious to the greater 
part of his subjects, and caused them to view the progress 
of the Huns with indifference. Some time before, on the 
occasion of the desertion of a chief of the Roxolans, Her- 
manric had caused his innocent wife to be torn to pieces by 
wild horses, and her brothers now seized the occasion for 
vengeance. Hermanric perished by their daggers, and his 
son and successor, Withimer, fell in battle against the Huns. 
The greater part of the nation of the Ostrogoths forthwith 
submitted ; but the more generous portion, with their infant 
sovereign Witheric, and led by two brave chiefs named 
Saphrax and Aletheus, penetrated to the banks of the Nies- 
ter, which Athanaric occupied at the head of the warriors 
of the Visigoths. The Hunnish hordes soon appeared, and 
by causing a large body of their cavalry to ford the river by 
moonlight and surround the Goths, they forced them to retire 
and seek the shelter of the hills. Athanaric had arranged 
anew plan of defence; but his people had lost courage, and, 
under the guidance of their two other Judges, Fritigern and 
Atavivus, they approached the banks of the Danube, seeking 
the protection of the Roman emperor, (376.) 

The Gothic envoys proceeded to Antioch, where Valens 
was then residing. Their request was taken into consider- 
ation by the emperor and his council ; and it was decided to 
give them a settlement within the bounds of the empire, on 
the condition of their delivering up their arms before they 
passed the river, and suffering their children to be separated 
from them, and dispersed through the cities of Asia, to serve 
as hostages, and be brought up in Roman manners. Under 
the pressure of necessity, the Goths consented to these terms ; 
and orders for their transportation were then issued to the 
imperial officers. As the stream of the Danube was rapid, 
swollen, and a mile in breadth, many perished in the pas- 
sage ; but we are assured that at the least two hundred thou- 



A. D. 376.] THE GOTHS, 371 

sand Gothic warriors, with their wives, children, and slaves, 
were safely landed on the southern bank of the river. The 
hostages were delivered according to agreement : but to retain 
their arms they consented to prostitute their wives and chil- 
dren, and to sacrifice their most precious possessions; and 
the lust and avarice of the imperial officers caused them to 
endanger the peace of the empire for their gratification. A 
powerful Gothic army thus occupied the hills and plains of 
Lower Mcesia. Soon after, Saphrax and Aletheus, with their 
Ostrogoths, appeared on the banks of the Danube imploring 
a passage; but Valens, now become alarmed, dismissed their 
envoys with a refusal. 

Prudence and policy equally counselled that so formidable 
a host as that of the Visigoths should have been managed 
delicately, and the utmost care been taken to avoid giving 
them any cause of irritation. But Lupicinus and Maximus, 
the governors of the province, thought only of indulging 
their avarice. The vilest food, such as the flesh of dogs, was 
supplied to them ; to obtain a pound of bread they had to 
give a slave, and to pay ten pounds of silver for a small 
quantity of flesh meat; and when all their property had thus 
been expended, want impelled them to the sale of their sons 
and daughters. Their patience was at length exhausted, and 
their menaces alarmed Lupicinus and Maximus, who there- 
fore resolved to disperse them along the frontiers without 
delay. With this view they drew around them all the troops 
they could assemble; and, as they in consequence removed 
those that were watching the Ostrogoths, that people seized 
the opportunity of crossing the river on rafts and in boats, 
and encamped, unshackled by conditions, on the Roman 
territory. The Visigoths, conducted by Fritigern, in com- 
pliance with the orders of the Roman general, advanced to 
Marcianopolis, seventy miles inland from the Danube. Here, 
however, they were refused a market; and a quarrel in con- 
sequence arose between them and the Roman soldiers, in 
which some blood was spilt. Lupicinus, who was at the 
time entertaining the Gothic chiefs, when informed of this 
event, gave orders for their guards to be slain. Fritigern, 
hearing the noise, drew his sword, and, calling on his com- 
panions to follow him, forced his way through the crowd, 
and rejoined his countrymen without the walls. Their 
banners were instantly raised, and their horns sounded, 
according to their custom, for war. Lupicinus, at the head 
of what troops he could collect, marched out against them. 



VALENS, GRA.T1AN, ETC. [a. D. 377-378. 

The engagement took place about nine miles from Marcian- 
opolis ; and it terminated in the total defeat of the Romans. 
The unprotected country soon felt the effects of the Gothic 
victory; the husbandmen were massacred or enslaved, the 
villages w^ere plundered and burnt. A body of Goths in 
the Roman service, vi^ho were quartered at Hadrianople, 
were driven into insurrection by the imprudent violence 
of the governor of that town. They joined their victorious 
countrymen, and their united forces laid siege to the city. 
But the Goths knew nothing of sieges, and Fritigern drew 
them off, declaring that " he was at peace with stone walls." 
The slaves who wrought in the gold-mines of Thrace fled to 
the invaders, and revealed to them all the recesses in the 
mountains in which the inhabitants had concealed themselves 
with their cattle and property. Enormities of every kind 
were perpetrated on the unhappy people of the country, 
(377.) 

To check the excesses of the barbarians, Valens sent the 
troops of the East, under his generals Trajan and Profuturus, 
with whom Richomer, count of the domestics in the Western 
empire, united his forces, and it was resolved to seek out 
and attack the enemy. The Goths, who had repassed 
Mount Hsemus, were now encamped in the plain adjacent 
to the most southern of the mouths of the Danube. When 
the approach of the Roman army was discerned, Fritigern 
summoned all the scattered warriors to his standard, and an 
action was fought, which, after lasting from dawn till dusk, 
terminated in the decisive advantage of neither party. For 
the seven following days, the Goths remained within their 
camp, which was secured, according to the custom of their 
race, by a strong circuit of wagons. The plan of the Ro- 
man generals was to confine them to the angle which they 
occupied, till famine, by its sure operation, should have re- 
duced them. But while, with this view, they were fortifying 
their lines, they learned that Fritigern had formed a league 
with the Ostroojoths, and had even induced a larcre number 
of the Huns and Alans to join his standard. The Romans, 
fearful of being surrounded, abandoned the siege of the 
Gothic carap, and retired; and the liberated Goths rapidly 
spread their devastations as far as the Hellespont, (378.) 

Valens had early sought the aid of his nephew and col- 
league Gratian ; and that gallant young emperor was pre- 
paring to lead the forces of the West to the deliverance of 
the East, when the Alemans, learning his design, and perhaps 



A. D. 378.] GOTHIC WAR. 373' 

acting in concert with the Goths, passed the Rhine to the 
number of forty thousand. The troops which had been sent 
on to Pannonia were recalled, and Gratian, guided by the 
military experience and wisdom of his general Nanienus, and* 
of Mellobaudes, king of the Franks, and count of the do- 
mestics, gave the barbarians battle at Colmar {Argentaria) 
in Alsace. The victory of the Romans was decisive ; the 
king of the Alemans was slain ; and of their entire host not 
more than five thousand men escaped from the field of battle. 
Gratian then invaded their country, and forced them to sue 
for peace. 

While Gratian was thus inspiring his subjects with ad^ 
miration and respect for their youthful emperor, Valens had 
reached Constantinople, where, urged by the clamors of the 
populace, and inspirited by the recent successes of some of 
his generals, he resolved to assume in person the conduct of 
the war against the barbarians ; and he set out at the head 
of a large army. The Goths had proposed to occupy the 
defiles on the road from that city to Hadrianople ; but the 
march of the imperial troops was conducted with so much 
skill and celerity, that they reached the latter place unim- 
peded, and secured themselves in a strong camp beneath its 
walls. A council was held to decide on future operations. 
Count Richomer, whom Gratian had despatched with intel- 
ligence of his victories, and with assurances of his speedy 
approach, urged strongly the prudence of waiting for the 
arrival of the Gallic legions; his advice was seconded by 
Victor, the master of the horse, a Sarmatian by birth, but a 
cautious and prudent man. On the other hand, Count Se- 
bastian and the court flatterers advised against sharing witb 
a colleague the glory of a certain victory. Their counsels^ 
aided by the jealousy of Valens, prevailed. While prepara- 
tions were being made for battle, a Christian presbyter ar- 
rived as the envoy of Fritigern. The public letters of which 
he was the bearer, craved that Thrace, with all its cattle and 
corn, should be given to his people as the condition of a 
perpetual peace; but he was also commissioned to deliver a 
private letter, in which Fritigern, writing as a friend, said that 
he should never be able to bring his countrymen to agree to 
any terms unless the imperial army were close at hand to 
daunt them by its presence. The object of the wily Goth 
was to bring on a speedy engagement. 

At dawn the following day, (Aug. 9,) the legions of the East 
were in motion, the imperial treasure and insignia being left 

CONTIN. 32 



374 VALENS, GRATIAN, ETC. [a, D. 378. 

within the walls of Hadrianopie. Toward noon the wag- 
on-fence of the enemy, twelve miles from the city., was 
discerned. The Romans began to form their line of battle; 
the Goths, as the troops of Aletheus and Saphrax were hot 
yet come up, sent again illusive proposals of peace, and, 
while time was thus gained, the effects of the heat of the 
burning sun were augmented by the Goths setting fire to the 
grass and wood of the surrounding country. The Romans 
also suffered from want of food : and at length the arrival of 
Saphrax and Aletheus put an end to all negotiation, and the 
battle commenced. The horse of the Roman left wing pen- 
etrated to the enemy's line of wagons, but, being unsupported, 
was overthrown and scattered ; and the foot, being thus left 
without protection, and crowded into too narrow a space to 
be able to use their arms to advantage, were crushed by the 
masses of the enemy. After a long but fruitless resistance, 
they fled in all directions. The emperor sought refuge 
among the troops named Lancearians and Mattiarians, from 
their weapons, who still stood their ground. Count Trajan 
crying out that all was lost if the emperor were not saved, 
Count Victor hastened to the spat with the reserve of Bata- 
vians; but the emperor was nowhere to be found, and the 
furious onset of the Goths soon forced all to provide for their 
own safety. A moonless night terminated the rout, and 
aided the escape of the vanquished Romans. Since the day 
of Cannae, no such calamity had befallen the Roman arras. 
Scarcely a third part of the army quitted the field. Among 
the slain were the Counts Trajan, Sebastian, Valerian, and 
Equitius, and six-and-thirty other officers of rank. 

The fate of Valens himself was never exactly known. 
Some said that at nightfall he fell mortally wounded by an 
arrow, and that his body, confounded among those of the 
common soldiers, could never be recognized. Others as- 
serted that, when he was wounded, some of his guards and 
eunuchs conveyed him to a neighboring cottage, and, while 
tbey were engaged in trying to dress his wound, the enemy 
surrounded the house, and, being unable to force the doors, 
heaped straw and wood against them, and, setting fire to 
these materials, burned the house and all within it. One of 
the guards, who escaped out of a window, survived to tell 
the story. 

Such was the fate of the emperor Valens, in the fiftieth 
year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign. He is said 
to have been a firm friend^ a rigid maintainer of both civil 



A. D. 378.] GOTHIC WAR. 375 

and military order, a mild ruler of the provinces. He was 
also moderately liberal. On the other hand, he is charged 
with avarice, indolence, severity bordering on cruelty ; and 
it is added, that, though affecting a great regard to justice, 
he would never allow the judges to give any sentence but 
such as he wished. In religion, he was an Arian; and the 
Catholics underwent some persecution during his reign. 

On the morning after the battle, the Goths, eager to pos- 
sess the wealth of which they knew it to be the depot^ sur- 
rounded the walls of Hadrianople. The soldiers and camp 
followers, who had been shut out of the town, fought with 
desperate resolution, and kept them at bay for the space of 
five hours ; and the imprudent slaughter of three hundred 
men who went over to them, showed that safety only lay in 
valor and constancy. A violent tempest at last forced the 
Goths to return to their wagon-camp. They again had re- 
course to negotiation, and then tried the way of treachery. 
Some of the guards had deserted to them, and they induced 
these men to return to the city as if they had made their 
escape, and, if admitted, they were to set fire to a part of 
the town, in order that, while the besieged were engaged ia 
quenching the flames, the Goths might seize the opportunity 
of breaking in at some unguarded place. The traitors were 
admitted ; but the discrepancy in their account of the designs 
of the enemy caused them to be put to the torture, and the 
truth was thus discovered- The Goths, in the morning, re- 
newed the assault; but the defence was resolute as ever, and 
they retired in the evening, accusing one another of madness 
in not attending to the counsel of Fritigern, and avoiding all 
dealings with stone walls. They departed the next day, 
and directed their course for the capital. They plundered 
and wasted all the circumjacent country ; but they feared the 
strength of the walls and the magnitude of the population of 
the city. While they were insulting its strength, a squadron 
of Saracenic light horse, which had lately arrived, issued 
from one of the gates and attacked them. The conflict was 
well maintained and dubious; but when the Goths beheld 
an Arab warrior, half naked, with his long hair hanging 
about him, raise a hoarse and dismal chant, and, drawing 
his dagger, rush into the midst of their ranks, and, putting 
his mouth to the throat of one whom he had slain, suck his 
blood, they were filled with horror and disgust. They short- 
ly after withdrew with their booty to the northern provinces, 
and spread their ravages as far as the Adriatic. 



376 GRATiAx, ETC. [a. d. 379. 

Meantime, an act of barbarous, and therefore questiona- 
ble, policy was put in practice by Julius, who commanded 
beyond Mount Taurus. Apprehending danger from the 
Gothic youth who were dispersed in the various towns and 
cities, he, with the consent of the senate of Constantinople, 
issued orders to their commanders, who happened to be all 
Romans, (a thing, as Ammianus observes, very rare in those 
days,) to assemble them all on a certain day, as if to receive 
their promised pay, and then to slaughter them. The orders 
were executed ; the Goths were collected, unarmed, in the 
squares of the towns, the avenues were guarded, and, from 
the tops of the adjacent buildings, the soldiers overwhelmed 
them with their weapons.* 



Gratian, Valentinian IL, and Theodosius. 
A. u. 1131— 1136. A. D. 378—383. 

Gratian had been on his march to aid his uncle, when he 
heard of the defeat and death of that ill-fated prince. He 
forthwith halted, and, taking into serious consideration the 
state of the empire, and knowing that the West would de- 
mand his own undivided attention, he saw clearly the neces- 
sity of selecting some one, in whose character the general 
and the statesman should be united, to take the charge of the 
East. Acting on the wisdom which experience had taught, 
he resolved that the person selected should be his colleague 
in the empire, and not a subordinate officer ; and the choice 
which he made was alike honorable to himself and its object. 

The person selected by Gratian for the high dignity of 
emperor of the East was the son of that Theodosius, 
who, only three years before, had been put to death by his 
own authority. The younger Theodosius had, oa that oc- 
casion, craved leave to resign his command ; and, having 
obtained it, he had retired to his native country, Spain, and 
fixed his residence on his paternal estate at Coco, between 
Valladolid and Segovia. He there divided his time between 
the town and the country ; and the care and the improvement 
of his property formed his chief occupation. While thus 

* Zosimus (who is followed by Gibbon) says that they were the 
Gothic youths who had been delivered up to Valens. Ammianus 
seems to speak of them as Goths in the Roman service. This writer's 
valuable history ends at this point. 



A. D. 379-3S2.] THEODosius. 377 

engaged, he was summoned to receive the purple, with which 
he was invested by Gratian in the city of Sirmium, (Jan. 19, 
379,) amid the favoring acclamations of the soldiers and the 
people. Theodosius was now in the thirty-third year of his 
age ; his person and countenance displayed manly vigor and 
dignity; and time proved that the qualities of his heart corre- 
sponded to those outward charms which captivated the vulgar. 
No man ever attained to empire in a more honorable man- 
ner ; the slightest vestige of intrigue or manoeuvre is not to 
be discerned; his country was in danger, and a noble-minded 
prince summoned to its aid the man deemed most capable 
of delivering it from its enemies; for we must not refuse the 
me'ed of praise to Gratian, who could intrust such power to 
a man whose father had been murdered in his name. 

Theodosius did not venture to lead the dispirited troops 
of the East into the field against the Goths. He fixed his 
own residence at Thessalonica, and caused the fortifications 
of the other towns to be strengthened. By frequent sallies, 
the soldiers were taught to encounter the barbarians ; grad- 
ually, small armies were formed, and, by well-concerted ope- 
rations, victories were gained. This Fabian policy was 
aided by the dissensions which naturally broke out among 
the various bodies of the barbarians when the able Fritigern 
was removed by death. A Gothic chief, of royal blood, 
named Modar, entered the service of Theodosius, who gave 
him a high military command ; and he surprised and cut to 
pieces a large body of his countrymen. Athanaric, who had 
emerged from his retirement after the death of Fritigern, 
and prevailed on the greater part of the Visigoths to submit 
to his rule, was now advanced in years, and disposed to 
peace. He therefore listened to the proposals of Theodo- 
sius, and concluded a treaty. The emperor advanced ta 
meet him at some distance from Constantinople, and At^ha- 
naric accompanied him to that city. The Gothic prince 
was amazed at its strength and magnificence; but the change 
in his mode of life probably proved fatal to him, for he died 
not long after his arrival. He was interred by the emperor 
with the utmost magnificence, and a stately monument was 
raised to his memory. His whole army entered the imperial 
service ; the other chiefs gradually agreed to treaties with 
the emperor ; and thus, within a space of little more than 
four years after the death of Valens, (382,) the victors of 
Hadrianople had become the subjects of the empire. The 
settlements assigned them were in the provinces of Mcesia 
32 * V y 



378 GRATIAN, ETC. [a. D. 386. 

.and the cis-Danubic Dacia, which had been laid desolate by 
their ravages. 

During all this time, the Ostrogoths were far away in the 
north, among the tribes of Germany. They at length (336) 
appeared once more on the banks of the Lower Danube, 
their numbers augmented by German and Sarmatian, or per- 
haps Hunnish auxiliaries, and proposed to renew their dev- 
astation of the Roman provinces. Promotus, the general 
'of the opposite frontier, had recourse to stratagem against 
them. He sent over spies, who stipulated to betray the Ro- 
man army, assuring the barbarians that, if they crossed the 
river in the dead of the night, they might surprise it when 
buried in sleep. Accordingly, on a moonless night, the 
Goths embarked their warriors in three thousand monozi/ls, 
or canoes, and pushed for the opposite shore; but, when they 
approached it, they found it guarded, for the length of two 
miles and a half, by a triple line of vessels ; and, while they 
were struggling to force their way through them, a fleet of 
galleys came, with stream and oars, down the river, and as- 
sailed them. The resistance which they were able to offer 
was slight ; their king or general Odothgeus, and numbers 
'of their warriors, were slain or drowned, and they were final- 
ly obliged to solicit the clemency of the victors.* Theodo- 
sius, who was at hand, concluded a treaty with them, by 
which they engaged to become his subjects. Seats were 
assigned them in Lydia and Phrygia, where they were gov- 
erned by their own hereditary chiefs, under the supreme 
authority of the emperor. A body of 40,000 Goths, named 
FcRderati, or allies, henceforth formed a part of the army 
of the East, distinguished by gold collars, higher pay, and 
various privileges. 

We will now turn to the West and the emperor Gratian. 

This prince, whose character was by nature feeble and 
gentle, had been fostered, as it were, into greatness by the 
wisdom and the counsels of the able preceptors with whom 

* There is some confusion in this account. Zosimus (iv. 35, and 
38, 30,) makes the Goths to be twice defeated, (A. D. 383 and 386,) on 
the same river, and by the same person, and in the same manner, as it 
•would appear. The Gothic general in the former he calls QCdotheus; 
the same with the Odothaeus of Claudian (De iv. Cons. Hon. 626) in 
the second. We cannot, by the way, agree with Gibbon that this was 
Aletheus. 

One of the most improbable circumstances in the narrative is, that 
the Goths should not have discerned the Roman shipping ; for tae 
Danube is nowhere too wide to be seen across. 



A. D. 383.] CHARACTER OF GRATIAN. 379 

his father had surrounded him.* In the acts of the early 
years of his reign, though he was the ostensible agent, they 
were the secret directors ; and the youth, whose chief virtue 
was ductility to good, obtained the fame due to higher qual- 
ities. But when death or other causes had removed these 
able and virtuous advisers, the amiable but indolent prince 
fell under the guidance of men of a different character, to 
whom he intrusted the affairs of the state, while he devoted him- 
self to the delights of the chase, in which he bent the bow and 
flung the dart with the skill of a Commodus. The offices 
and advantages of the court and the provinces were set to 
sale, and the minds of the subjects were thus alienated; but 
this would have signified little had Gratian been careful to 
retain the attachment of the soldiers, which his conduct, 
when directed by worthy advisers, had won. This, how- 
ever, he lost by his own imprudence. He had placed a body 
of Alans among his guards, and, charmed with their dexterity 
in the use of his favorite weapons, he committed to them 
exclusively the defence of his person. He used even to ap- 
pear in public in their peculiar national dress, to the grief 
and indignation of the legionary soldiers, even the Germans 
viewing with horror the Scythian costume. 

While such was the temper of the troops, a revolt broke 
out in the army of Britain, (383,) and a person named Max- 
imus was there proclaimed emperor. This man, who was a 
native of Spain, and the fellow-soldier of Theodosius, was re- 
siding in Britain, but without civil or military rank of any 
importance. His abilities and his virtues are recognized, 
but whence his influence arose we are uninformed ; and if 
we may credit his own positive assertion, his dignity was 
forced on him. He plainly saw that he could not recede; 
and, as the British youth crowded to his standard, he passed 
over to Gaul at the head of a large army.t The troops of 
Gaul all declared for him, and Gratian fled from Paris to 
Lyons with only three hundred horse. The gates of all the 
towns on his way were closed against him, and the treacher- 

* Ausonius, the poet (more properly versifier) of Bordeaux, was one 
of his tutors. Gratian honored him with the consulate in 379. We 
cannot see why Gibbon should call Ausonius " a professed pagan." 

t A large emigration of Britons to Armorica is placed in this time, to 
which belongs the legend of St. Ursula and her virgins. These are 
said to have been 11,000 noble and 60,000 plebeian maidens, the des- 
tined brides of the emigrants, who, mistaking their way, went up the 
Rhine, and were massacred at Cologne by the Huns — who were not 
there. 



380 THEODOsius, ETC. [a. d. 383-387. 

ous governor of Lyons amused him with promises till those 
sent in pursuit of him arrived, and he was slain as he rose 
from supper, (Aug. 25.) His brother Valentinian applied, 
but in vain, for his body. Mellobaudes, the Frank king and 
Roman general, shared the fate of his master ; but Maximus, 
who was now acknowledged by the whole West, could boast 
that no other blood was shed except in the field. 



Theodosius, Valentinian II., and 3Iaximus, 
A. u. 1136—1141. A. D. 383—388. 

The late revolution had been so sudden that Theodosius 
had been, perhaps, uninformedof it until it was accomplished; 
and, ere he could determine how to act, he was waited on by 
an embassy from the usurper, headed by his chamberlain, a 
man advanced in years, and, as the historian observes, to the 
praise of Maximus, not a eunuch. The envoy justified the 
conduct of his master, assertinor his ignorance of the murder 
of Gratian : he then proceeded to give Theodosius the op- 
tion of peace or war. Gratitude and honor urged the em- 
peror to avenge the fate of his benefactor ; but prudence sug- 
gested that the issue of a contest with the troops of Gaul, 
Spain, and Britain, was doubtful, and that the barbarians, 
who hovered on the frontiers, would be ready to pour into 
the empire when its forces should have been wasted in civil 
conflict. He, therefore, lent a favorable ear to the pro- 
posals of Maximus, and acknowledged hiin as a colleague, 
carefully, however, stipulating for the security of Valen- 
tinian in his share of tlie empire. The images of the three 
imperial colleagues were, according to usage, exhibited to 
the people. 

The empire now remained at rest for a space of four years; 
but at length (3ST) its repose was disturbed by the ambition 
of Maximus; for, not content with his own ample portion, 
this fortunate rebel cast an eye of cupidity on the dominions 
of Valentinian, where many were disaffected on account of 
religion. Having extorted large sums of money from his 
subjects, he took a great number of barbarians into pay ; and, 
when an ambassador from Valentinian came to his courts 
he persuaded him to accept the services of a part of his 
troops for an imminent Pannonian war. The envoy himself 
was their guide through the passes of the Alps ; Maximus 



A. D. 387.] FLIGHT OF VALENTINIAN. 381 

secretly followed at the head of a larger body, and a precipi- 
tate flight from Milan to Aquileia alone assured the safety of 
Valentinian and his mother. Not deeming themselves se- 
cure even in that strong city, they embarked in a vessel, and, 
sailing round the Grecian peninsula, landed at Thessaloni- 
ca,* whither Theodosius hastened to visit them. He delib- 
erated with his council as to what were best to be done ; the 
same reasons as before urged him to pause before he should 
engage in a civil war ; and the injuries of Valentinian might 
possibly have gone unrevenged, had they not found an advo- 
cate in the beauty of his sister Galla. By the directions of 
her mother, this princess cast herself at the feet of Theodo- 
sius, and with tears implored his aid. Few hearts are proof 
against the tears of beauty — that of Theodosius, at least, was 
not ; his empress was dead, and his aid was assured if the 
lovely supplicant would consent to share the throne of the 
East. The condition was accepted, the nuptials were cele- 
brated, and the royal bridegroom then prepared to take the 
field. Large bodies of Huns and Alans crowded to the 
standard of Theodosius, who found Maximus encamped near 
Siscia, on the banks of the Save. The light cavalry of the 
barbarians flung themselves into that deep and rapid river 
the moment they reached it, and routed the troops which 
guarded the opposite bank. Next morning, a general action 
ensued, which terminated in the submission of the surviving 
troops of Maximus, who fled to Aquileia, whither he was 
rapidly followed by Theodosius. The gates were burst 
open ; the unfortunate Maximus was dragged into the pres- 
ence of the victor, who, having reproached him with his 
misdeeds, delivered him to the vengeance of the soldiers, by 
whom his head was struck off. His son Victor, whom he 
had given the rank of Caesar, and left behind him in Gaul, 
was put to death by Count Arbogast, one of Theodosius's 
generals, by the order of that emperor; and the whole of the 
West was thus subjected to the rule of Valentinian, The 
generous Theodosius compensated those who had suffered 
by the oppression of Maximus, and he assigned an income to 
the mother of that ill-fated prince, and provided for the edu- 
cation of his daughters. 

* Gibbon's account of their voyage is more suited to epic poetry 
thaa to history. 



382 THEODOSIUS, ETC. [a. d. 390. 

Theodosius and Valentinian II. 
A. V. 1141—1145. A. D. 388—392. 

Theodosius, after his victory, remained three years in 
Italy to regulate the affairs of the West for his juvenile col- 
league. In the spring of the year 389, he made a triumphal 
entrance into the ancient capital of the empire ; but his usual 
abode was the palace of Milan. 

While Theodosius was residing in Italy, (390,) an unhappy 
event occurred, which casts almost the only shade over his 
fair fame. In the city of Thessalonica, an eminent charioteer 
of the circus conceived an impure affection for a beautiful 
boy, one of the slaves of Botheric, the commander of the gar- 
rison : to punish his insolence, Botheric cast him into prison. 
On the day of the games, the people, with whom he was a 
great favorite, enraged at his absence, rose in insurrection, 
and, as the garrison was then very small, they massacred 
Botheric and his principal officers, and dragged their bodies 
about the streets. Theodosius, who was of a choleric temper, 
was filled with fury when he heard of this atrocious deed. 
His first resolution was to take a bloody revenge ; the efforts 
of the bishops then led him to thoughts of clemency ; but the 
arguments of his minister Rufinus induced him, finally, to 
expedite an order for military execution. He then attempted 
to recall the order, but it was too late. The people of Thes- 
salonica were, in the name of the emperor, invited to the 
games of the circus. Their love of amusement overcoming 
their fear of punishment, they hastened to it in crowds ; when 
the place was full, the soldiers, who were posted for the pur- 
pose, received the signal, and an indiscriminate massacre en- 
sued. The lowest computation gives the number of those 
slain as seven thousand. 

The archbishop of Milan at this time was the intrepid Am- 
brose. When he heard of the bloody deed, he retired to the 
country, whence he wrote to the emperor to say that he had 
been warned in a vision not to offer the oblation in his name 
or presence, and advising him not to think of receiving the 
Eucharist with his blood-stained hands. Theodosius ac-^ 
knowledged and bewailed his offence, and after some time 
proceeded to the cathedral to perform his devotions; but 
Ambrose met him at the porch, opposed his entrance, and 
insisted on the necessity of a public penance. Theodosius 



Av S>. 390.] ARBOGAST. 333 

submitted ; and the lord of the Roman world, laying aside his 
imperial habit, appeared in the posture of a suppliant in the 
midst of the church of Milan, with tears soliciting the pardon 
of his sin. After a penance of eight months, he was restored 
to the communion of the faithful. 

To the cruelty of Theodosius on this occasion may be op- 
posed his clemency, some time before, to the people of Anti- 
och. This lively, licentious people, being galled by an in- 
crease of taxation, (387,) flung down, dragged through the 
streets, and broke, the images of Theodosius and his family. 
The governor of the province sent to court information of 
this act of treason ; the Antiochenes despatched envoys to 
testify their repentance. After a space of twenty-four days, 
two officers of high rank arrived to declare the will of the 
emperor. Antioch was to be degraded from its rank, and 
made a village, under the jurisdiction of Laodicea; all its 
places of amusement were to be shut up, the distribution of 
corn to be stopped, and the guilty to be inquired after and 
punished. A tribunal was erected in the market-place, the 
most wealthy citizens were laid in chains, and their houses 
exposed to sale, when monks and hermits descended in 
crowds from the mountains, and, at their intercession, one of 
the officers agreed to return to court, and learn the present 
disposition of the emperor. The anger of the generous 
Theodosius had subsided ere he arrived, and a full and free 
pardon was readily accorded to the repentant city. 

Valentinian, after the death of his mother and the departure 
of Theodosius, fixed his abode in Gaul. His troops were 
commanded by Count Arbogast, a Frank by birth, who had 
held a high rank in the service of Gratian, after whose death 
he had passed to that of Theodosius. Aware of the weak- 
ness of his young sovereign, the ambitious barbarian raised 
his thoughts to empire. He corrupted the troops, he gave 
the chief commands to his countrymen, he surrounded the 
prince with his creatures, and Valentinian found himself 
little better than a prisoner in the palace of Vienne. He 
sent to inform Theodosius of his situation ; but, impatient 
of delay, he summoned Arbogast to his presence, and deliv- 
ered him a paper containing his dismissal from his posts. 
" You have not given me my authority, and you cannot take 
it away," was the reply of the general ; and he tore the pa- 
per, and cast it on the ground. Valentinian snatched a sword 
from one of the guards, but he was prevented from using it. 



384 THEODosius. [a. d. 392-394. 

A few days after, he was privately strangled, and a report was 
spread that he had died by his own hand, (May 15, 392.) 



Theodosius. 
A. u. 1145—1148. A. D. 392—395. 

Arbogast, deeming it more prudent to reign under the 
name of another than to assume the purple himself, selected 
for his imperial puppet a rhetorician named Eugenius, who 
had been his secretary, and whom he had raised to the rank 
of master of the offices. An embassy was despatched to 
Theodosius to lament the unfortunate accident of the death 
of Valentinian, and to pray him to acquiesce in the choice 
of the armies and people of the West. Theodosius acted 
with his usual caution ; he dismissed the ambassadors with 
presents, and with an ambiguous answer ; but he was secretly 
swayed by the tears of his wife, and resolved to avenge the 
death of her brother. After devoting two years to his prepa- 
rations for this hazardous war, he at length (394) put him- 
self at the head of his troops, and directed his march for 
Italy. Arbogast, taking warning by the errors of Maximus, 
contracted his line of defence, and, abandoning the northern 
provinces, and leaving unguarded the passes of the Julian 
Alps, encamped his troops under the walls of Aquileia. 
Theodosius, on emer^incr from the mountains, made a furious 
assault on the fortified camp of the enemy, in which ten thou- 
sand of his Gothic troops perished. At nightfall he retired, 
baffled, to the adjacent hills, where he passed a sleepless night, 
while the camp of the enemy rang with rejoicings. Arbogast, 
baving secretly sent a large body of troops to get in the rear 
of the emperor, prepared to assail him in the morning, 
(Sept. 6.) But the leaders of these troops assured Theodo- 
sius of their alleo-iance ; and in the enoraaement a sudden 
tempest from the Alps blew full in the faces of the troops of 
the enemy ; and, their superstition leading them to view in it 
the hand of Heaven, they flung down their arms and submit- 
ted. Eugenius was taken and put to death ; Arbogast, after 
wandering some days through the mountains, perished by 
his own hand. 

Theodosius survived his victory only five months. Though 
he was not more than fifty years of age, indulgence had un- 



A. D. 395.] CHARACTER OF THEODOSIUS. 385 

dermined his constitution, and he died of dropsy at Milan, 
(Jan. 17, 395,) leaving his dominions to his two sons, Arca- 
dius and Honorius. 

The character of the great Theodosius is one which it is 
gratifying to contemplate. Called from a private station to 
empire, he was still the same in principle and conduct ; and',, 
the surest evidence of native greatness of soul, he remained 
unchanged by prosperity. He was an affectionate and faith- 
ful husband to both his wives, a fond parent, a generous and 
kind relation, an affable and agreeable companion, and a 
steady friend. As a sovereign, he was a lover of justice, a 
wise and benevolent legislator, an able and successful gen- 
eral. His defects were too slavish a submission to some in- 
tolerant ecclesiastics, which led to the enactment of per- 
secuting laws against heretics and pagans ; a violence of 
temper, which we have seen exemplified in the massacre at 
Thessalonica; a love of indolence, and an over-fondness for 
the pleasures of the table, which brought him to a prema- 
ture death, to the great calamity of the empire. 

The reign of Theodosius forms an epoch in the history of 
the Roman empire. He was the last who ruled over the 
whole empire ; and it was in his time that the ancient system 
of religion, under which Rome had risen, flourished, and 
commenced, at least, her decline, was finally and permanent- 
ly suppressed. His reign was also the last in which Rome 
appeared with any remnant of her original dignity on the 
scene of the world. It will surely not be accounted impiety 
or superstition, if we say that the eloquent appeals and lam- 
entations of the advocates for the old religion were not with- 
out foundation ; and that, in the order of Providence, Rome's 
greatness was indissolubly united with her pontifices, augurs, 
and vestals. Such seems undeniably to have been the fact ; 
the cause is probably inscrutable.* 

* [The author has said, only ten lines before, that the decline of 
Rome began under the ancient system of religion. If so, there was, 
of course, no connection between the maintenance of that system and 
the greatness of Rome. Every reader of Roman history must surely 
perceive that her own moral degradation, and the advance of other 
nations, were the causes of her decline. Our author loses, in this in- 
stance, his usual acuteness, or he would see that his remark implies a 
tendency in Christianity to weaken morality — a tendency he would 
be the last to allow. See his own words on the last page of this work. 
— J. T. S.] 

CONTIN. 33 WW 



386 THEODosius. [a. d. 395. 

If we credit the complaints of contemporary writers, lux- 
ury was continually on the increase, and manners became 
more depraved every day. These statements are, however, 
to be received with caution ; and how either luxury or de- 
pravity could exceed that under the successors of Augustus, 
it is not easy to discern. Property had, of late years, been 
somewhat more secure from the rapacity of the court, and the 
terrors of the barbarians were as yet too remote to produce 
that recklessness which consumes to-day what it is not certain 
of possessing to-morrow. The censurers, in fact, are either 
splenetic pagans, eager to cast a slur on the new faith, or 
Christian ascetics, who viewed all indulgence with a jaun- 
diced eye. We are very -far from saying that the morals of 
this period were pure, or at all comparable with those of 
modern Europe ; we only doubt if they were worse than 
those of the times of Tiberius and Nero. 

A striking proof, however, was given at this time, that the 
thew and sinew of the Roman soldier were no longer what 
they had been in the days of the republic. The infantry 
craved and obtained permission to lay aside their helmets 
and corselets, as oppressing them with their extreme weight. 
Even future misfortunes could not induce them to resume 
these arms ; and this, among other causes, contributed to the 
speedy downfall of the empire. 

Literature continued to share in the general decline. Po- 
etry might be regarded as extinct ; history has only to pre- 
sent the name of Amraianus Marcellinus, who, however, 
among the historians of the empire, stands next in rank to 
Tacitus, though at a very long interval. The Sophists, that 
is, those to whom the manner was every thing, the matter of 
comparatively little importance, were the class of literary 
men held in most esteem. Orations, panegyrics, public or 
private epistles, in which the absence of fruit is sought to be 
concealed by the abundance of foliage and flowers, form the 
store of these men's compositions. The most distinguished 
among them was Libanius of Antioch, the friend of both 
Julian and Theodosius, a large portion of whose writings 
still exist. Julian himself occupies no mean place among 
the Sophists. His letters, from his station in society, are far 
more important and interesting than those of Libanius. 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 387 

CHAPTER VI. 
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

SUPPRESSION OF PAGANISM. RELIGION OF THE FOURTH CEN- 
TURY. STATE OF MORALS. THE DONATISTS. THE 

ARIANS. OTHER HERETICS. — ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTITU- 
TION. FATHERS OF THE CHURCH. THE MANICH^ANS. 

As the reign of Theodosius was the period of the com- 
plete fall of paganism, and final triumph of the Christian 
faith, we will here interrupt our narrative of political events, 
and briefly relate the victories of the church over heathen- 
ism and heresy, and portray its external and internal con- 
dition. 

When Constantine embraced the Christian religion, he 
left the ancient system of the Roman state undisturbed : 
toward the end of his reign, however, he issued edicts for the 
demolition of heathen temples, and prohibited sacrifices. 
Constantius was more hostile to heathenism than his father 
had been ; and he executed the laws against it with great 
severity, even punishing capitally those guilty of the crime 
of offering sacrifice to idols. The absurd and fruitless efforts 
of Julian in its favor have been related, and the humane 
and enlightened toleration of Jovian and Valentinian has 
been praised. But Theodosius (much less Gratian) had not 
strength or enlargement of mind to resist or refute the argu- 
ments of the advocates of intolerance, and in their time 
the veneration of the tutelar deities of ancient Rome was 
treated as a crime. 

The preservation of a pure monotheism being the main 
object of the law of Moses, its prohibitions against idolatry 
are numerous and severe ; but the Christian religion, relyinor 
on its internal worth and its utter incompatibility with idol- 
atry, is less emphatic on that subject. The habit, however, 
of confounding it with the Mosaic law had become so strong, 
and the opinion of the gods of the heathen being evil spirits, 
and not mere creatures of imagination, so prevalent,* that 
the worship of them was held to be the highest insult to the 

* [This idea was not confined to those times. Modern theologians 
have held it. Thus does Prideaux, in his valuable " Connection of 
Old and New Testaments." — J. T. S.J 



388 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

majesty of the Creator ; and the sovereign who suffered innt- 
pious rites to be performed, was regarded as participatinor in 
the guilt. Yielding to these considerations, Gratian, on his 
accession, refused to receive the insignia of a Pontifex Maxi- 
mus, which even the most zealous of his predecessors had 
not rejected ; and he seized on the sacerdotal revenues for 
the uses of the church or state, and abolished all the honors 
and immunities of the heathen priesthoods. The image and 
altar of Victory, which were placed in the senate-house, had 
been removed by Constantine and restored by Julian. As 
the majority of the senate still adhered to the old religion of 
the state, the tolerant Valentinian had suffered it to remain 
undisturbed ; but his more zealous son ordered it to be 
again removed. A deputation of the senate, sent on this oc- 
casion, was refused an audience by the emperor. The year 
after his death, another deputation waited on his brother 
Valentinian : it was headed by Symmachus, the prefect of 
the city, a pontiff and augur, a man of noble birth, and of 
distinguished eloquence and unstained virtue. He was op- 
posed by Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, and the prayer of 
the Roman senate was rejected. When Theodosius was at 
Rome,* he called on the senate to choose between the two 
religions; and the majority of that body, warned by the fate 
of Symmachus, who had recently been sent into exile, voted 
in accordance with the wishes of the emperor. Pretended 
conversions became numerous, the temples were deserted 
and the churches filled with worshippers, and the religion 
under which Rome had flourished for twelve centuries 
ceased forever. Respect probably for the dignity of the city 
caused the temples to be spared and left to the operation of 
natural decay; but in the provinces no such delicacy was 
observed, and many Christian prelates, such as Martin of 
Tours, Marcellus of Apamea, and Theophilus of Alexandria, 
headed holy crusades for the destruction of the abodes of the 
idols ; and many a stately edifice, the pride of architecture, 
w^as thus consigned to untimely ruin. A few escaped de- 
struction by being converted into Christian churches. In 
effect, the fate of the temples seems in general to have de- 
pended on the good sense or fanaticism of the bishop of the 
diocese in w'hich they stood. 

The edicts which Theodosius put forth against sacrifices 
and other heathen rites having been frequently eluded, he at 

* Most probably after his victory over Maximus, though both Zosi- 
mus and Prudentius place it after that over Eugenius. 



RELIGION OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 389 

length (392) published one which breathes the very spirit of 
intolerance.* By this he forbids all persons, no matter what 
their rank, to offer any sacrifice whatever, or even to suspend 
garlands, burn incense or place lights before the domestic 
deities of Roman religion, the Genius, the Lar, and the 
Penates. The penalty was the forfeiture of the house or 
estate in which the rites had been performed, or, if these 
were the property of another person, a fine of twenty-five 
pounds weight of gold. Prohibited thus in either its public 
or private exercise, heathenism gradually died away. Its last 
lingering footprints appeared in remote villages ; t and in 
the reign of the grandson of Theodosius, it even was doubted 
(but without reason) if there were any longer any pagans in 
existence. 

Thus have we witnessed the final triumph of the church 
over its open and declared enemy. Before we enter on the 
history of its civil wars, we will take a view of its own nature 
and character. 

The Christianity of the days of Constantino and his suc- 
cessors is most certainly not that of the gospel. In effect, 
with the exception of transubstantiation and image worship, 
(from neither of which it was far distant,) and a few other 
points of minor importance, it differed little from the system 
which our ancestors flung off at the time of the Reformation. 
The church of Rome is, in fact, very unjustly treated, when 
she is charged with being the author of the tenets and prac- 
tices which were transmitted to her from the fourth century. 
Her guilt or error was that of retention, not of invention. 

The learned author whom we have taken for our principal 
guide in this part of our work, presents the following brief 
view of the state of religion at this time.| 

** The fundamental principles of the Christian doctrine were 
preserved hitherto incorrupt and entire in most churches, 
though it must be confessed that they were often explained 
and defended in a manner that discovered the greatest igno- 
rance, and an utter confusion of ideas. The disputes carried 
on in the council of Nice concerning the three persons in 
the Godhead, afford a remarkable instance of this, particu- 

* Yet Theodosius was not of an intolerant temper. He bestowed 
the consulate on Symmachus, and he was on terms of personal friend- 
ship with the Sophist Libanius. 

t Hence the heathens were called Pagans, (Pagani,) or villagers, 
d, pago. 

t Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, Cent. iv. Part ii. chap. 3, 

33* 



B9D THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

larly in the language and explanations of those who approved 
the decisions of that council. So little light, precision, and 
order, reigned in their discourses, that they appeared to sub- 
stitute three gods in the place of one. 

"Nor did the evil end here; for those vain fictions, which 
an attachment to the Platonic philosophy and to popular 
opinions had engaged the greatest part of the Christian doc- 
tors to adopt before the time of Constantine, were now con- 
firmed, enlarged, and embellished in various ways. Hence 
arose that extravagant veneration for departed saints, and 
those absurd notions of a certain^re destined to purify sepa- 
rate souls, that now prevailed, and of which the public marks 
were every where to be seen. Hence, also, the celibacy of 
priests, the worship of images and relics, which, in process 
of time, almost utterly destroyed the Christian religion, or 
at least eclipsed its lustre, and corrupted its essence in the 
most deplorable manner. 

" An enormous train of different superstitions were gradu- 
ally substituted in the place of genuine religion and true 
piety. This odious revolution proceeded from a variety of 
causes. A ridiculous precipitation in receiving new opin- 
ions, a preposterous desire of imitating the pagan rites, and 
of blending them with the Christian worship, and that idle 
propensity which the generality of mankind have toward a 
gaudy and ostentatious religion, all contributed to establish 
the reign of superstition upon the ruins of Christianity. Ac- 
cordingly, frequent pilgrimages were undertaken to Pales- 
tine, and to the tombs of the martyrs, as if there alone the 
sacred principles of virtue, and the certain hope of salvation, 
were to be acquired. The reins being once let loose to 
superstition, which knows no bounds, absurd notions and 
idle ceremonies multiplied every day. Q-uantities of dust 
and earth, brought from Palestine and other places remark- 
able for their supposed sanctity, were handed about as the 
most powerful remedies against the violence of wicked spirits, 
and were sold and bought every where at enormous prices. 
'The public processions and supplications, by which the 
pagans endeavored to appease their gods, were now adopted 
into the Christian worship, and celebrated with great pomp 
and magnificence in several places. The virtues that had 
formerly been ascribed to the heathen temples, to their lus- 
trations, to the statues of their gods and heroes, were now 
attributed to Christian churches, to water consecrated by 
certain forms of prayer, and to the images of holy men; and 



RELIGION OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 391 

the same privileges that the former enjoyed under the dark- 
ness of paganism, were conferred upon the latter under the 
light of the gospel, or rather under that cloud of supersti- 
tion that was obscuring its glory. It is true that as yet im- 
ages were not very common, nor were there any statues at all ; 
but it is at the same time as undoubtedly certain, as it is ex- 
travagant and monstrous, that the worship of the martyrs was 
modelled according to the religious services that were paid to 
the gods before the coming of Christ." 

Thus doth this learned and candid historian express him- 
self; and we must remind the reader that it is not of the 
tenth or twelfth century, as might perhaps be supposed, that 
he is writing, but of the fourth, the period of the Nicene 
council, the age of Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil 
the Great, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and others, who 
are regarded as the great Fathers of the Church. All these 
superstitions are to be found in their writings, and mostly 
mentioned in terms of approbation. 

The great parent of the external corruption of the pure 
and simple faith of the gospel seems, as we have already ob- 
served, to have been the law of Moses; for this law, which 
was at the same time a system of religious and of civil polity, 
was, in accordance with the designs of Providence and the 
state of the world at the time, so framed as to bear a certain 
degree of resemblance to the civil and religious institutions 
of the neighboring nations. Hence it had its priesthood, its 
sacrifices, its splendid ceremonies and ritual observances. 
When, therefore, the Christians, from the natural love of 
parade and magnificence, or with the specious view of gain- 
ing over the heathen, wished to introduce rites and ceremo- 
nies into the church, they found them ready to their hand in 
the law of the Israelites; and, when once the practice had 
begun, the step was easy to the introduction of various tenets 
and practices of heathenism, for which the Mosaic law fur- 
nished no precedent. 

The Mosaic religion, for example, had no mysteries, and 
no mythology and worship of heroes; yet the Christianity of 
the fourth century had both. We have already shown how 
the simple rites of baptism and the Eucharist were converted 
into mysteries. The notion of their importance became 
every day more and more deep and solemn ; they were 
termed awful and tremendous mysteries, by the greatest of 
the Fathers ; and such were the miraculous powers ascribed 
to the elements of the Eucharist, that St. Ambrose, in a pub- 



392 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

lie discourse, affirmed that his own brother, happening to 
have them about his person, was by their efficacy saved in a 
shipwreck. 

Christianity obtained its heroes and mythology in the fol- 
lowing manner : The memory of the Martyrs, (i. e. wit- 
nesses,) or those who had testified their faith in Christ by 
sealing it w^ith their blood, and, in a less degree, that of the 
Confessors, who had shown their willingness to do tlie same, 
was naturally held in reverence and respect by the members 
of the church. The principle of human nature from which 
pilgrimage arises caused the pious to resort to the places 
where their remains were deposited ; these places were soon 
regarded as being possessed of superior sanctity, which could 
only arise from the mortal relics of the holy men which lay 
there; and the sanctity, being inherent in these remains, would 
of course accompany them, if transferred. Hence arose the 
translation of the bodies of the apostles, and other holy men, 
from the humble tombs in which they had hitherto reposed, 
to capital cities and other places, to give holiness to stately 
churches which were to be erected in their honor. Every, 
even the smallest, fragment of the body of a saint, every thing, 
in short, that had touched that hallowed frame when ani- 
mated, was held to possess virtue ; and wonderful tales were 
told each day of the miracles performed by them. As it 
might seem absurd that the earthly portions of the holy men 
should possess such power, and their spiritual have no influ- 
ence in the lower world, a kind of ubiquity was ascribed to 
their glorified spirits, and it was believed that they could 
hear prayer and give aid to the supplicant. False miracles, 
false relics, even false saints, were rapidly manufactured,* 
and the church had soon a mythology which far exceeded in 
copiousness that of ancient Greece.f A maxim of the most 
pernicious nature now greatly prevailed in the church, 
namely, " That it was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, 

* " Certain tombs were falsely given out for the sepulchres of saints 
and confessors ; the list of the saints was augmented with fictitious 
names, and robbers were converted into martyrs. Some buried the 
bones of dead men in certain retired places, and then affirmed that they 
were divinely admonished by a dream, that the body of some friend of 
God lay there," &c. «&c. Mosheim, ut supra. 

t " The sublime and simple theology of the primitive Christians," 
says Gibbon, " was gradually corrupted ; and the monarchy of heaven, 
already clouded by metaphysical subtilties, was degraded by the intro- 
duction of a popular mythology which tended to restore the reign of 
polyiheism." 



RELIGION or THE FOURTH CENTORY. 393 

when by such means the interests of the church might be 
promoted." This had, no doubt, been of long standing, for 
pious fraud and pious fiction early began, but it was now at 
its acme ; and even the greatest of the Fathers are charged 
with acting on this maxim,* and thus transforming Chris- 
tianity into polytheism and idolatry. 

" If, in the beginning of the fifth century," says Gibbon:, 
whom we may here safely quote, " Tertullian or Lactantius 
had been suddenly raised from the dead to assist at the festi- 
val of some popular saint or martyr, they would have gazed 
with astonishment and indignation on the profane spectacle 
which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a 
Christian congregation. As soon as the doors of the church 
were thrown open, they must have been offended by the 
smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the glare of 
lamps and tapers, which diffused at noon-day a gaudy, super- 
fluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they 
approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their way 
through the prostrate crowd, consisting for the most part of 
strangers and pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the vigils 
of the feast, and who already felt the strong intoxication of 
fanaticism, and perhaps of wine. Their devout kisses were 
imprinted on the walls and pavement of the sacred edifice, 
and their fervent prayers were directed, whatever might be 
the language of their church, to the bones, the blood, or the 
ashes of the saint, which were usually concealed by a linen 
or silken veil from the eyes of the vulgar. The Christians 
frequented the tombs of the martyrs in the hope of obtaining 
from their powerful intercession every sort of spiritual, but 
more especially of temporal blessings. They implored the 
preservation of their health or the cure of their infirmities, 
the fruitful ness of their barren wives, or the safety and hap- 
piness of their children. Whenever they undertook any dis- 
tant or dangerous journey, they requested that the holy mar- 
tyrs would be their guides and protectors on the road; and 
if they returned without having experienced any misfortune, 
they again hastened to the tombs of the martyrs to celebrate 
with grateful thanksgivings their obligations to the memory 
and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung 
round with symbols of the favors which they had received; 
eyes and hands, and feet of gold and silver; and edifying 
pictures, which could not long escape the abuses of indis- 

* Mosheim, ut supra, Paragraph xvi. 



394 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

creet or idolatrous devotion, representing the image, the at- 
tributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint. The same 
uniform original spirit of superstition might suggest, in the 
most distant ages and countries, the same methods of deceiv- 
ing the credulity and of affecting the senses of mankind ; 
but it must ingenuously be confessed that the ministers of 
the Catholic church imitated the profane model which they 
were impatient to destroy. The most respectable bishops 
had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would 
more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of paganism if 
they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the 
bosom of Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved 
in less than a century the final conquest of the Roman em- 
pire, but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by 
the arts of their vanquished rivals." 

Nothing is more characteristic of the corruption which 
Christianity had undergone than the high honor in which 
the various classes of ascetics were held. These useless or 
pernicious beings now actually swarmed throughout the East- 
ern empire, and were gradually spreading themselves into the 
West. We have shown how asceticism has been derived from 
the sultry regions of Asia, and how it originates in the Gnos- 
tic principles. It had long been insinuating itself into the 
church; but, after the establishment of Christianity, it burst 
forth like a torrent, spreading from Egypt over Syria, Meso- 
potamia, and the other provinces, at such a rate, that, " in a 
short time," observes Mosheim, "the East was filled with a 
lazy set of mortals, who, abandoning all human connections, 
advantages, pleasures, and concerns, wore out a languishing 
and miserable life amidst the hardships of want and various 
kinds of suffering, in order to arrive at a more close and rap- 
turous communion with God and angels." 

Of these fanatics there were two classes, the Coenobites 
and the Eremites, a branch of which last were the Anacho- 
rites.* The former, as their name denotes, lived together 
in a fixed habitation under an abhot^ a word signifying fa- 
ther. The founder of this order was a man named Antony, 
who drew together a number of the Eremites of Egypt, and 
gave them fixed rules of conduct. There is a life of this 
hero of the monastic orders, which has been written by the 

* Koivo^iaxoi, livers-in-common; "EQi^^urai, dwellers-qf-the-desert^ 
Qqri^iog.) vfhence our word Hermit; ^vaxf^QV^aif 'retirers. The gen- 
eral term was Mova;(ol, solitaries, whence our Monk. 



STATE OF MOHALS. 395 

great Alhanasius.* The Eremites, on the contrary, dwelt 
solitary in caves or in wretched cottages of the desert; while 
the Anachorites, rejecting even this faint semblance of hu- 
manity, lived like the beasts of the field, wandering without 
certain abode, lying down wherever night overtook them, 
and feeding on the spontaneous produce of the earth, shun- 
ning the sight and the society of all human beings. The 
most distinguished of the Eremites was Paul, a recluse of 
the Thebais, a kind of semi-savage, whose life and acts St. 
Jerome did not think it beneath him to record as an ensam- 
ple of true Christian holiness and perfection. Beside the 
above-mentioned classes of ascetics, we read of an order 
named in Egypt Sarabaites, who travelled about from place 
to place, working fictitious miracles, selling false relics, and 
performing various other frauds to deceive the credulous 
multitude. These, like the corresponding Moharnmedan 
dervishes, were mostly notorious profligates : heavy com- 
plaints are made also of the Coenobites ; but the hermits 
were in general mere fanatics or spiritual madmen. 

The hope of acquiring heaven by virginity and mortifica- 
tion was not confined to the male sex; woman, with the en- 
thusiasm and the devotional tendency peculiar to her, rushed 
eagerly toward the crown of glory. Nunneries became nu- 
merous, and were thronged with inmates. Nature, however, 
not unfrequently asserted her rights, and the complaints and 
admonitions of the most celebrated Fathers assure us that 
the unnatural state of vowed celibacy was productive of the 
same evils and scandals in ancient as in modern times. 

The state of morals among Christians in general was, 
according to the testimony of the contemporary Fathers 
and other writers, extremely low. " When," says the writer 
already quoted, " we cast an eye toward the lives and morals 
of Christians at this time, we find, as formerly, a mixture of 
good and evil, some eminent for their piety, others infamous 
for their crimes. The number, however, of immoral and 
unworthy Christians began so to increase, that the examples 
of real piety and virtue became extremely rare. When the 
terrors of persecution were totally dispelled; when the 
church, secured from the efforts of its enemies, enjoyed the 
sweets of prosperity and peace; when the major part of bish- 
ops exhibited to their flock the contagious examples of arro- 
gance, luxury, effeminacy, animosity, and strife, with other 

* The next place in fame to St. Antony is occupied by St. Pacho- 
mius. 



396 THE CHRISTIAN CHITRCH. 

vices too numerous to mention; when the inferior rulers and 
doctors of the church fell into a slothful and opprobrious 
negligence of the duties of their respective stations, and 
employed in vain wranglings and idle disputes that zeal and 
attention which were due to the culture of piety and to the 
instruction of their people; and when (to complete the enor- 
mity of this horrid detail) multitudes were drawn into the 
profession of Christianity, not by the power of conviction 
and argument, but by the prospect of gain or by the fear of 
punishment, — then it was indeed no wonder that the church 
was contaminated with shoals of profligate Christians, and 
that the virtuous few were, in a manner, oppressed and over- 
whelmed by the superior numbers of the wicked and licen- 
tious. It is true that the same rigorous penance which had 
taken pl^ace before Constantine the Great, continued now in 
full force against flagrant transgressors ; but when the reign 
of corruption becomes universal, the vigor of the law yields 
to its sway, and a weak execution defeats the purposes of the 
most salutary discipline. Such was now unhappily the case : 
the age was sinking daily from one period of corruption to 
another, the great and the powerful sinned with impunity, 
and the obscure and indigent alone felt the severity of the 
laws." 

When such was the state of morals, it is natural to be sup- 
posed that heresy and schism should prevail, and the unity 
of the church be torn by feud and faction. We shall there- 
fore proceed to enumerate the principal sects and heresies 
of the fourth century. 

The first of these was the Donatists, so named from Do- 
natus, one of their most active partisans. It was a sect, not 
a heresy, for the orthodoxy of its members never was ques- 
tioned. It originated in the following circumstance : On 
the death of the bishop of Carthage in 311, the clergy and 
people of that city chose the archdeacon Caecilianus for 
his successor, and he was consecrated by the bishops of Af- 
rica Minor, without waiting for those of Numidia. These 
last, highly offended, summoned Cagcilianus before them; 
his disappointed competitors were active in their hostility, 
and a wealthy lady, named Lucilla, whom he had reprimand- 
ed for her superstitious practices, with all a woman's appe- 
tite for vengeance, lavished her money on the Numidians, to 
keep up their zeal, Caecilianus having refused to submit to 
their jurisdiction, they declared him unworthy of his dignity, 
and appointed in his stead his deacon Majorinus ; and the 



THE DONATISTS. 397 

church of Carthage had thus two rival bishops. The rea- 
sons given for the sentence against Csecilianus vi^ere, that 
Felix of Aptungus, by whom he was consecrated, was a Tra- 
ditor, and that he himself, when a deacon, had shown, in the 
time of the late persecution, great cruelty toward the martyrs 
and confessors, actually leaving them to perish for want of 
food in their prisons. 

The Donatists having appealed to Constantine, that em- 
peror (313) directed the bishop of Rome, aided by three 
Gallic prelates, to examine the cause. The decision was 
in favor of Caecilianus, who was acquitted of the charges 
brought against him, as also was Felix of Aptungus, whose 
cause was examined by the proconsul of Africa. The Don- 
atists were dissatisfied; and the emperor ordered (314) a 
greater number of prelates to meet at Aries, and examine the 
cause anew. The result of this inquiry also was adverse to- 
them; they then appealed to the emperor in person, who 
examined the cause at Milan, (316,) and confirmed the pre- 
ceding sentences. They acted after this with so much inso- 
lence, that Constantine lost patience, and deprived them of 
their churches, banished their bishops, and even put some of 
their more refractory prelates to death. 

As the Donatists were numerous and powerful, tumults 
ensued, which Constantine sought in vain to allay. The 
savage and ferocious populace, which sided with them, un- 
der the name of Circumcellions, massacred, ravaged, and 
plundered their opponents all through the province; and 
matters were approaching to a civil war, when Constantine 
abrogated the laws made against the Donatists. The empe- 
ror Constans endeavored to heal the schism ; but the Dona- 
tists would listen to no terms, and the Circumcellions even 
ventured to give battle to the imperial troops. They were, 
however, defeated ; and a persecution ensued, which lasted 
till the accession of Julian, when the Donatists again raised 
their heads. Their numbers were so great that they counted 
no less than four hundred bishops of their party ; but they 
split into two factions. The eloquent Augustine, bishop 
of Hippo, wrote, preached, and spoke against them ; and 
this sect, the offspring of episcopal arrogance, gradually 
died away. 

The era of the establishment of Christianity [as the state 
religion] witnessed another schism in the church, of far 
greater and more lasting importance than that caused by the 

CONTIN, . 34 



898 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

Donatists. This was the celebrated Arian controversy, of 
which we will now briefly trace the history. 

The language of the New Testament, respecting the dig- 
nity of Christ, is lofty, but, at the same time, involved in a 
certain degree of obscurity, if we may venture so to express 
ourselves, which, acting on the natural diversity of human 
minds, has, in all ages, caused a difference of opinion to 
exist on this mysterious subject.* It would probably have 
been better if the church had been content on this, as on 
other high matters, to confine itself strictly to Scripture lan- 
guage, and not to have attempted to be " wise beyond what 
is written." On this, however, as lying without our prov- 
ince, we venture not to speak decidedly ; our task is simply 
to state facts and opinions. 

That the Christians of the first century worshipped Christ, 
is a fact not to be disputed ; the testimony of Pliny is con- 
clusive on the subject. They believed firmly in his divinity, 
but they did not anxiously seek to fathom the mystery which 
enveloped it. Yet there were those, as we have seen, when 
treating of the Gnostic sects, who speculated on this lofty 
subject; and in the church itself, Praxeas and others ad- 
vanced some very hazardous conjectures. As the fondness 
for Platonism advanced, that portion of the Christian doc- 
trine which seemed most akin to the airy speculations of the 
Athenian sage, drew more and more the attention of learned 
Christians ; and, about the middle of the third century, Sa- 
bellius, a bishop or presbyter of Cyrene in Africa, advanced 
a theory which drew to him a considerable number of fol- 
lowers. He maintained that a certain energy proceeded 
from the Father, and united itself to the Son, the man 
Jesus, and he regarded the Holy Spirit as in the same way 
a Dortion of the Father. Hence the Sabellians are called 

JL 

Patripassians. The opinions of Sabellius were, however, 
refuted by Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria. 

Beryllus, bishop of Bozrah in Arabia, taught that Christ 
did not exist before Mary, but that, at the time of his birth, a 
spirit, issuing from God himself, and therefore a portion of 

* No one, surely, will deny the sense, the learning, or the honesty, 
of those who have held opinions different from the one generally re- 
ceived on this subject. If any one text more than another would seem 
to make in favor of Arianism, it is Phil. ii. 6 — 9 ; yet Dr. Lardner, in 
his Letter on the Logos, declares that it was this very text tliat made 
him a Socinian ! 



THE ARIANS. 399 

the Divine Being, was united to him. Beryllus was refuted 
by Origen, and he acknowledged and recanted his error. 

Paul, the celebrated bishop of Samosata, a man whom 
looseness of morals, and pride and arrogance, fostered by 
wealth, had rendered generally odious, was degraded from 
his episcopal dignity by a council in the year 269, on ac- 
count of his heretical opinions on this subject. He appears 
to have held that the Son and Holy Ghost exist in God as 
reason and activity exist in man ; that Christ was born a 
mere man, but that the reason or wisdom of the Father de- 
scended on him, and abode with him while on earth, and 
that hence he might, though improperly, be called God. 

It will be observed that the substance of these heresies of 
the second and third centuries, was the confounding of the 
Son and Holy Ghost with the Father. The church, on the 
other hand, had frequently decided that there was a real dif- 
ference, and that three distinct persons existed in the Deity, 
but without making any exact definition of the nature of 
their relation ; and the utmost liberty of sentiment and ex- 
pression was allowed respecting it. Yet the most prevalent 
opinion in Egypt and the adjacent countries, was that of 
Origen, who held that the Son was in God, as reason is in 
man, and that the Holy Ghost was simply the divine energy 
— a notion not very far removed from Sabellianism. 

In the year 319, in an assembly of the clergy of Alexan- 
dria, the bishop Alexander took occasion to communicate 
to them his sentiments on this head ; and he asserted that the 
Son was not only of the same eminence and dignity, but of 
the same essence with the Father. One of the presbyters, 
named Arius, treated this opinion as false, and as little re- 
moved from Sabellianism. He was then led to state his own 
opinions, which tended to the opposite extreme; for he held 
that the Son had been created by the Father before all 
things, but that time had elapsed before his creation ; that 
he was created out of nothing; that he was the instrument 
by whom the Father gave existence to the universe ; he was 
superior, therefore, to all other beings, but inferior, both in 
nature and dignity, to the Father. These opinions, when 
promulgated, found numerous favorers in Egypt and else- 
where; but Alexander caused them to be condemned in two 
councils which he summoned, and their author to be excom- 
municated. Arius withdrew to Palestine, whence he wrote 
numerous letters to eminent men, and drew many of them 
over to his sentiments. The controversy was maintained 



400 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

with great heat ; and the emperor Constantine, who at first 
treated it as trifling and unimportant, and wrote to the par- 
ties enjoining peace, was at length induced to summon a 
general council for its decision. 

This council, the first of those named CEcumenical or 
General, met at Nicsea in Bithynia, in the year 325. Three 
hundred and eighteen bishops, it is said, appeared in it, and 
the emperor in person was present at their deliberations. 
They commenced with personal altercation, and presented 
the emperor with libels or written accusations against each 
other, which Constantine, however, burned, exhorting them 
to peace and unity. Of the proceedings of this council we 
have only very imperfect accounts; but its decision was 
against the Arians. It was determined that the Son was 
consubstantial [oijioovuiog) with the Father, as it is expressed 
in the Nicene creed. The council further terminated the 
dispute about the time of keeping Easter, regulated some 
points of discipline, and then separated. It had been very 
near coming to a resolution of imposing on the clergy the 
yoke of celibacy, such progress had that unnatural tenet of 
the Gnostics made in the church. 

Persecution was of course employed against the defeated 
party, and Eusebius, bishop of Nicoraedia, and others, were 
banished ; but an Arian, who had been commended to the 
emperor by his sister when on her death bed, found means 
to convince him that the decision of the council was unjust, 
and Arius, Eusebius, and others, were recalled from exile. 
Athanasius, the successor of Alexander, however, refused to 
restore Arius to his rank and office in the church, for which 
he was himself deposed, by a council holden at Tyre in 335, 
and banished to Gaul. But the people of Alexandria refused 
to admit Arius ; and he died the following year at Constanti- 
nople, of a bowel complaint, as it would appear, which some 
suspect was brought on by poison administered by his ene- 
mies, who affected to view in it a judgment of Heaven. The 
moral character of Arius, it may be here observed, was with- 
out stain; and of his religious sincerity there seems to be lit- 
tle ground of doubt. 

Of the sons of Constantine, two were orthodox; but Con- 
stantius, into whose hands the entire empire finally fell, was 
strongly attached to the Arian system. Persecution and se- 
duction were employed against the Homoousians ; frequent 
synods were convened ; so that, as Ammianus observes, " by 
the troops of bishops who were hurrying backwards and 



THE ARIANS. 401 

forwards on the beasts devoted to the public service, to the 
synods, as they call them, in order to draw the whole sect to 
their own opinions, the entire posting establishment was well 
nigh ruined ; " and Athanasius expressed his fears that the 
clergy would thereby draw on them the derision and con- 
tempt of unbelievers. At length, a general council of the 
East was held at Seleucia in Isauria, (359,) and one of the 
West, at Rimini [Ariminum) in Italy, (360.) The former 
separated without coming to any decided conclusion ; the 
latter, which sat seven months, was, by proper management, 
brought to sanction a creed sufficiently Arian for the empe- 
ror's purpose, and "the whole world groaned," says Jerome, 
** and wondered to find itself Arian." Julian was indifferent, 
Jovian and Valentinian were orthodox but tolerant, Valens 
was an Arian and a persecutor. Theodosius was rigidly 
orthodox ; and the second general council v/hich he assem- 
bled at Constantinople (381) condemned the Arians anew. 
Intolerant edicts were forthwith issued against them ; they 
were deprived of their churches, banished, and otherwise 
persecuted. Their sect gradually declined in the East; it 
had never flourished in the West ; but the Goths and other 
barbarians, who had been converted by Arians, carried their 
religious system with them when they became conquerors ; 
and it was not till the close of the sixth century that Arian- 
ism became extinct in Spain. 

The Arians shared the general fate of all who, on points 
beyond human comprehension, venture to exercise the pow- 
ers of their mind ; they at length came to hold different shades 
of opinion, and thus became subdivided into sects. Their 
varieties may, however, be reduced to three : — 1. The prim- 
itive and proper Arians, who held simply that the Son was 
created out of nothing. 2. The Semi-Arians, who asserted 
that the Son was of similar essence {ojxoioovaLog^ with the 
Father, but by a peculiar privilege, not by nature. This was 
the doctrine favored by Constantius, and it was the prevalent 
sentiment in the council of Seleucia. 3. The Aetians, or 
Eunomians, so named from their chiefs, Aetius and Euno- 
mius, who may be regarded as pure Arians, for they held 
that the Son was unlike {uvof-ioiog) the Father, and o^ another 
essence^ (hegoiaiog.^ Of the Acacians, Eusebians, and other 
minor divisions, we will not speak. 

The Arian controversy gave rise to other heresies. Apol- 
linaris, bishop of Laodicea, in his zeal for the divinity of 
Christ, went near to denying his humanity. He held that 

34* YY 



402 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

the body of Christ had only had a sensitive soul, and that 
the divine nature assumed in him the office of the rational 
soul, whence it seemed to follow that his divine as well as 
his human nature suffered on the cross. This opinion, we 
may perceive, was indebted for its origin to the author's Plat- 
onism. 

Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, regarded the Son and Holy 
Ghost as emanations of the divine nature, which, after per- 
forming the functions appointed to them, were to return into 
the substance of the Father. Hence it plainly followed that 
there could not be three distinct persons in the Godhead, 

Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, the disciple of Marcellus, 
■taught that Jesus was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin 
Mary ; that the Word, i. e. a divine emanation or ray, de- 
scended on him, and that hence he was called the Son of 
God, and even God; that the Holy Ghost was only a virtue 
proceeding from the Deity. These opinions were condemned 
by both orthodox and Arians, and Photinus was degraded 
from his dignity. 

Macedonius, a Semi-Arian, being deposed from the see 
of Constantinople in 360, by the influence of the Eunomi- 
ans, taught openly an opinion which he had hitherto held in 
secret; namely, that the Holy Ghost is a divine energy dif- 
fused through the universe, and not a person distinct from 
the Father and Son. The second general council was 
assembled at Constantinople in 3S1, chiefly on account of 
this heresy. It completed what that of Nicaea had left im- 
perfect, establishing the doctrine of three persons in one God, 
which is still generally received. It also condemned and 
anathematized all heresies hitherto known, and it assigned 
the first rank after the bishop of Rome to the bishop of 
Constantinople. 

Such were the principal heresies which divided the church 
in the fourth century. They all arose from the vain attempt 
of rendering clear and definite that which had been left ob- 
scure and mysterious ; and they were combated too often by 
force and cruelty, rather than by reason and charity. The 
fourth was, in fact, a century of persecution : as soon as the 
church obtained temporal power, it abused it ; for church- 
men are nothing more than men. He who has power will 
take delight in its exercise ; and when he can silence an op- 
ponent by force, he will be willing to avoid the more tedious 
course of reasoning, or the nobler one of tolerance. In this 
condemnation the orthodox and the Arians are alike in- 
cluded. 



FATHERS OF THE CHURCH. 403 

In consequence of its establishment as the religion of the 
state, the church underwent a change in its constitution. 
The emperor assumed the entire control of its external 
administration. He alone had the power of convening a 
General Council ; he appointed judges to decide religious 
controversies ; he took cognizance of all civil causes between 
members of the hierarchy, regulated disputes between the 
bishops and people, and exercised a general superintendence 
over the church. The bishops, on their part, had made a mo- 
nopoly of the internal administration; people and presbyters 
alike were excluded from their original share, and of the an- 
cient government of the church there now remained nothing 
more than the shadow. 

The government of the church was modelled after that of 
the state. The prelates of the four principal cities of the 
empire answered to the four prsetorian prefects, and seem, 
even in this century, to have been termed Patriarchs. The 
Exarchs, corresponding with civil officers of the same title, 
had the inspection of several provinces. The Metropolitans 
had the government of one province; the Archbishops were 
over certain districts ; the Bishops were next in rank ; the 
inferior clergy, headed by Arch-presbyters and Arch-deacons, 
completed the sacred edifice. 

The bishop of Rome, chiefly in consequence of his supe- 
rior wealth and magnificence, and the civil dignity of his 
see, enjoyed a certain preeminence in rank, but nothing 
more. He had no power of making laws for the church, or 
of appointing bishops to their sees ; and the other prelates 
strenuously maintained their equality with him, as deriving 
their authority from the same divine source. 

The fourth century and the early part of the fifth were the 
golden age of the literature of the early church. The most 
distinguished of the Fathers then flourished, and a large 
proportion of their works have come down to modern times. 
We will here enumerate some of the principal. 

Athanasius, the secretary and the successor of Alexander 
in the see of Alexandria, was, throuorhout the whole of his 

7 7 O 

life, the invincible opponent of Arianism. In his opposition 
to that heresy, he braved the resentment of emperors; and 
he was five times expelled from his episcopal throne, and 
passed twenty years of his life in exile. His energy was in- 
domitable ; his sincerity was beyond question; his talents 
qualified him to rule an empire. As a writer and a speaker, 
he was clear, forcible, and persuasive ; but his style was un- 



404 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

polished, and his learning was inferior to that of some of his 
contemporaries.* 

Gregory, named Nazianzen from the town of Nazianzes 
in Cappadocia, of which his father was bishop, was a man of 
great piety, and considerable learning and eloquence. He 
also was an inveterate foe of Arianism ; and Theodosius, 
when, in his zeal for orthodoxy, he obliged the Arian prelate 
of Constantinople to resign his dignity, seated Gregory by 
force of arms on the archiepiscopal throne. But the pious 
prelate finally experienced the ingratitude of courts and 
bishops, and he resigned his see, and retired to a solitude in 
his native province, where he passed the remaining years of 
his life in the cultivation of poetry and the exercise of devo- 
tion ; for his heart was naturally tender, and his genius 
elegant. 

The rival of Gregory in genius and in eloquence, was his 
early friend, companion, and countryman, Basil, surnamed 
the Great, archbishop of Caesarea. But Basil had a pride of 
character from which Gregory was free; and the real Chris- 
tian knowledge of the great promoter of Oriental monas- 
ticism may not unreasonably be called in question. Basil 
and Gregory Nazianzen may be termed the great Christian 
sophists. In their works, as in those of Libanius, the anxiety 
as to form and manner, in preference to matter and import, 
may be discerned ; the dignity of simplicity was unknown 
to or despised by them, and the glitter of false eloquence 
assumes its place in their writings, 

Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, the brother of St. Basil, was 
also a writer of some eminence. His oration on the life of 
Gregory the Wonder-worker, proves him, however,, to have 
been a man of great credulity. 

Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, was the author of various 
works. It is to his Ecclesiastical History that we are chiefly 
indebted for our acquaintance with the early fortunes of the 
church ; and his Life of Constantine is a principal source of 
our knowledge of the events of that emperor's reign. But 
the credit of this prelate as an historian is greatly diminished 
by the rule which he declares he had laid down for his guid- 
ance, namely, to relate nothing to the disadvantage of those 
whom he celebrates, of which proceeding we have noticed 

* The account of Athanasius given by Gibbon (chap, xxi.) is in the 
historian's best manner, and does him credit. It shows that " even in 
a bishop he could spy desert." 



FATHERS OF THE CHURCH. 405 

an instance in his suppression of the murder of Crispus. 
He justifies this conduct by the specious, but untrue, pretext 
that this course is the more edifying one ; it being more edi- 
fying and profitable, for example, to blazon forth the virtues 
of the early Christians, than to narrate their dissensions 
and portray their wickedness and apostasies. History would 
thus become mere panegyric, and be of little more use than 
romance. Happily the prelate did not always adhere to his 
own rule ; and he occasionally lets us see that all was not 
purity and perfection in the church. 

These were the principal fathers of this century who used 
the Greek language. The following wrote in Latin : 

Lactantius, named the Christian Cicero from the elegance 
of his rich and copious style, is supposed to have been an 
African. His principal work, the Divine Institutes, is a 
refutation of paganism. His own notions of Christianity 
seem to have been of a more philosophic cast than those of 
most of his contemporaries. Like the apologists in general, 
his arguments often are weak, and his conclusions not justi- 
fied by his premises. 

Ambrose, a native of Gaul, the Becket of antiquity, vjras 
the civil governor of Liguria. When, on the occasion of a 
dispute between the orthodox and the Arians for the vacant 
see of Milan, (374,) he addressed the people in the cathedral 
in order to appease the commotion, he was greeted with the 
unanimous cry, " We will have Ambrose for our bishop." 
Ambrose, who was thirty-four years old, had not yet been 
baptized ; his religious instruction had necessarily been ex- 
tremely slight, and, in his desire to escape the elevation, for 
which he deemed himself unfit, he publicly committed some 
acts of gross injustice and immorality. But the people cried, 
" Thy offence be upon our heads ; " they drew him from a 
concealment which he had sought, and conducted him in 
triumph to Milan. He was thus forced to yield, and on the 
eighth day after his baptism, he was consecrated. He im- 
mediately made over the whole of his property to the church 
or the poor ; and spiritual ambition took entire possession 
of his soul. In the cause of orthodoxy, he resisted Justina, 
the Arian mother of Valentinian II. ; in the cause of the 
authority of the church, he humbled even the great Theodo- 
sius. As a writer, Ambrose is entitled to but moderate 
praise. His works discover a fondness for the prevalent su- 
perstitions of the age, and he lays claim to the power of per- 
forming miracles. He was an able statesman, a bold, am- 
bitious prelate, but a man of unblemished private life. 



406 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius in Africa, was a man 
of considerable mental power. He was engaged in con- 
tinual controversy with the Donatists and other heretics. 
His writings are numerous ; his most remarkable work is 
his Confessions, the earliest piece of autobiography that we 
possess. Augustine entered more deeply into the abstruse 
questions of grace, free will, and original sin, than the Fa- 
thers in general. He is regarded as the chief author of the 
opinions known by the name of Calvinism. 

Jerome, a native of Illyricum, had conceived such a pas- 
sion for a monastic life, that he left his own country and 
shut himself up in a convent at Bethlehem, where he de- 
voted all his days to devotion, study, and composition. He 
applied himself to the Hebrew language, and translated the 
Old Testament into Latin ; and as a translator and critic he 
ranks far above his contemporaries. He also engaged warm- 
ly in controversy, and earned the fame of being the most 
foul-mouthed of all the Fathers. On heretics and reformers 
alike the vials of his wrath were poured forth ; the opposers 
of mortification, celibacy, pilgrimage, saint-worship, and 
other superstitions which he chose to admire and recommend, 
however exemplary their lives, received no better treatment 
than the obstinate heretic or sinner, from this most choleric 
of saints. Even age brought no cooling to his fervent spirit; 
and his very latest writings are as fierce and fiery as those 
composed in his prime of life. 

Such were the principal Fathers of the fourth century ; 
and, viewing their writings, and those of their predecessors 
and successors, we tbink that any person of candor will agree 
with us in saying, that neither in critical skill, in learn- 
ing, in judgment, or in correct morality, can they stand a 
comparison with the Protestant divines of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries, or even with the Gallican divines of 
the same period. In gaudy, glittering, theatric eloquence, a 
Basil, a Gregory, a Chrysostom, may claim the precedence ; 
but what work can the ancient church produce to be placed 
alongside of the Ecclesiastical Polity of Hooker 1 or where 
can we find in it reasoning equal to that of Chillingworth 
and Barrow? The Fathers may be read with profit, but 
cannot be safely taken as guides, unless we are willing to 
end in submission to the church of Rome. The Christian 
religion is contained in the New Testament alone, and is 
thence to be derived, by the application of the principles of 
sound criticism in a spirit actuated by the sincere love of 
truth. 



THE MANIC H JEANS. 407 

We will conclude this chapter by an account of the Mani- 
chaean heresy. 

This heresy, which arose in the middle of the third centu- 
ry, may be regarded as the last and most permanent form of 
Gnosticism. Its founder, from whom it derived its name, 
was Manes, a Persian by birth, and one of the sacerdotal 
caste of the Magians, who embraced Christianity, and en- 
deavored to amalgamate it with his original faith. Of the 
history of his life little is known with certainty. He is said 
to have been put to death by the Persian king Varanes I. 

As the foundation of his system, Manes laid down the two 
principles of Light and Darkness, with their'respective chiefs 
(the Ormuzd and Ahriman of Persian theology) and their 
countless myriads of subordinate spirits. The prince of 
Darkness was long ignorant of the existence of the realm of 
light ; but when he accidentally discovered it, he invaded it. 
The armies of Light, headed by the First Man, opposed him, 
but could not prevent his seizing a large portion of it, and 
mingling it with matter. The Living Spirit, the second 
leader of the troops of Light, had more success; yet still 
much of the pure element remained immersed in matter. 
From the mixture the prince of Darkness formed the parents 
of the iiuman race, who had therefore a material body, in 
which were two souls, one sensitive and lustful, the other 
rational and immortal, as being produced of Light. The 
Living Spirit then created the earth out of matter, as a 
habitation for the human race, in order to their gradual puri- 
fication from the influence of corrupt matter ; and to aid 
them in their efforts, God produced, from his own substance, 
two beings, named Christ and Holy Ghost, the former of 
whom, (the Persian Mithras,) a splendid substance, subsist- 
ing in and by himself, filled with life and infinite in wisdom, 
resided in the sun; while the latter, also luminous and ani- 
mated, pervaded the atmosphere of the earth, illumining the 
minds of men, giving fertility to the soil, and drawing out 
from it the particles of celestial heat, and restoring "them to 
their native region. 

The Supreme Deity sent a succession of angels and holy 
men to admonish and exhort the souls imprisoned in matter. 
At length, he directed Christ to quit his abode in the sun, 
and, taking on him the semblance of a body, to appear on 
earth. Christ obeyed the mandate, performed miracles, and 
gave precepts to man ; but the prince of Darkness stirred up 
the Jews against him, and, in appearance, he suffered death 



408 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

on the cross. He reascended to the san, having appointed 
apostles to propagate his religion, and promised a Paraclete 
or Comforter, who would add what was needful to his doc- 
trine, and dispel all error from the minds of his servants. 
This great Paraclete was Manes ; and those who obeyed the 
laws of Christ as enlarged by him, would gradually be freed 
from the influence of matter, but not wholly in this life ; for, 
after death, they must first proceed to the moon, which is 
composed of purifying water', after an abode in which of fif- 
teen days, they were to ascend to the sun, whose^re would 
remove all remaining stains. The souls of the wicked were, 
after death, to m'igrate into the bodies of animals and other 
natures, till they should have expiated their guilt. The 
world was finally to be consumed with fire, and the prince 
and powers of Darkness be compelled to return to and abide 
forever in their original gloom and misery. 

The moral system of Manes was severe and rigorous in 
the extreme; but, aware that celibacy, long fasting, and 
mortification, were not suited to mankind in general, he 
made a distinction similar to one already noticed,* dividing 
his followers into the Elect and the Hearers, from the former 
of whom alone obedience was exacted to his ascetic system. 

Manes rejected all the books of both the Old and the New 
Testament, except St. Paul's Epistles, which, however, he 
regarded as greatly interpolated and corrupted. He gave 
his disciples a gospel of his own, named Ertang, dictated to 
him, as he said, by God himself The Manicheean assem- 
blies had always a president, who represented Jesus Christ, 
twelve rulers or masters, and seventy-two bishops, to corre- 
spond with the apostles and disciples ; under the bishops 
were presbyters and deacons, all selected from the body of 
the Elect ; and the hierarchy was thus completed. 

The Manichcean system long continued to flourish. It 
spread itself over both the empires. We believe there is 
little doubt, that those who, under the names of Albigenses, 
Paulicians, Cathari, and other denominations, were so cru- 
elly persecuted by the church of Rome in the middle ages, 
v/ere the descendants of the Manicha^ans. There is reason 
to suppose that the mistresses and the loves of the trouba- 
dours of the South of France were not earthly ; that the 
conventional language, retained by the Soofees in Persia, 
had been carried by the Manichseans to Spain and France ; 

, * See above, p. 283. 



A. D. 395.] HONORIUS. 409 

that in Italy, this language, which had hitherto been con- 
fined to religion, was, by Frederick II. and his friends, ex- 
tended to politics, and made the bond of union of the 
Ghibellines ; and that it is only by a knowledge of it, that 
the writings of Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, and the other 
writers of that age, can be understood.* In fine, it might 
appear that Manichseism eventually led to the Reformation.. 



CHAPTER Vll.t 

HONORIUS, VALENTINIAN III., ETC. 
A. u. 1148—1229. A. D. 395—476. 

DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE. RUFINUS. THE GOTHS IN 

GREECE. GILDO. INVASION OF ITALY BY ALARIC. 

BY RADAGAISUS. MURDER OF STILICHO. CLAUDIAN. 

ALARIC'S SECOND INVASION. SACK OF ROME. DEATH 

OF ALARIC. BARBARIANS IN THE EMPIRE. VALENTIN- 
IAN III. BONIFACE AND ^TIUS. GENSERIC. HIS CON- 
QUEST OF AFRICA. ATTILA. THEODORIC. BATTLE 

OF CHALONS. ATTILa's INVASION OF ITALY. MURDER. 

OF ^TIUS AND OF VALENTINIAN. MAXIMUS. SACK 

OF ROME BY GENSERIC. AVIT US. MAJORIAN. SEVE- 

RUS. ANTHEMIUS. NEPOS AND GLYCERIUS. ROMULUS 

AUGUSTUS. END OF THE EMPIRE. CONCLUSION. 

Honorius. 

A. u. 1148—1176. A. D. 395—423. 

With Theodosius the unity of the Roman empire termi- 
nated ; it never again obeyed a single ruler, and henceforth 
the empires of the East and the West are as distinct as any 
independent kingdoms of ancient or modern times. As the 
history of that of the East, during the remaining period of 
our narrative, presents no events of much political impor- 

* The proofs will be found in the various works of Signor Rossetti, 
the learned and sagacious expounder of Dante. 

t Authorities : Zosimus, Claudian, Jornandes, the Ecclesiastical 
Historians, and the Chroniclers. 

CONTIN. 35 Z Z 



410 HONORIUS. [a. D. 395. 

tance, we will confine ourselves to that of the West, and 
rapidly relate its fall. 

Theodosius had two sons : to the elder, named Arcadius, a 
youth of eighteen years of age, who had been left behind in 
Constantinople, was assigned the empire of the East ; to the 
younger, Honorius, a boy of eleven years, that of the West.* 
The care of both the emperors and their dominions was 
committed by Theodosius, on his death bed, to Stilicho, a 
man of great talent, civil and military, and of incorrupt in- 
tegrity, to whom he had given his niece and adopted daugh- 
ter Serena in marriage, and had raised him to the high 
rank of master of both the cavalry and infantry of the 
empire. 

After the decease of Theodosius, Stilicho remained in 
Italy with the young Honorius. The chief minister of Ar- 
cadius was Rufinus, the prefect of the East, a native of 
Gaul, who, having devoted himself to the practice of the law 
at Constantinople, by his talents and by his profound hypoc- 
risy gained the favor of the late emperor, who had gradually 
raised him to his present dignity. As soon as death had 
relieved him from the restraint which his knowledge of the 
latent vigor of Theodosius's character imposed, Rufinus 
flung off the mask, and gave free course to his cruelty and 
his avarice. In the gratification of this last ignoble passion, 
he passed all bounds. Justice was sold, offices were sold, 
oppressive taxes were imposed, testaments were extorted or 
forged, ruinous fines were exacted, properties were confis- 
cated on the slightest pretexts. The wealth thus acquired 
was retained by the most rigid parsimony, and Rufinus was 
consequently the object of hatred to many, and of sincere 
attachment to no one. 

The ambitious prefect hoped to unite his only daughter to 
his youthful sovereign ; but he seems not to have reflected 
on the secret machinations of a despotic court; and while 
he was absent on a journey of vengeance to Antioch, where, 
without even a shadow of proof, he judicially murdered the 
count of the East, a secret conspiracy m the palace, headed 
by the chamberlain Eutropius, undermined his power. Dis- 
covering that their young monarch had no affection for his 
destined bride, the confederates planned to substitute for her 
the fair Eudoxia, the orphan daughter of Bauto, a Frank 
general in the imperial service. They inflamed the imagina- 

* The province of lUyricum was divided between the two empires. 



A. D. 395.] RUFINUS. 411 

tion of the emperor by their commendations of her charms ; 
the view of her picture confirmed the impression, and when, 
on the day fixed for the royal nuptials, after the return of 
Rufinus, (April 27,) the bearers of the diadem, robes, and 
ornaments, of the future empress, issued from the palace, 
they entered not the mansion of the prefect, but the house 
in which Eudoxia was dwelling, and conducted the daughter 
of Bauto to the imperial residence. The sense and spirit 
exhibited by the new empress soon filled Rufinus with alarm; 
and it is not unlikely that, in the rage of disappointed ambi- 
tion, and the dread of a hostile faction, he may, as he is 
charged, have resolved to aim at the empire, and with this 
view have secretly encouraged the Goths and Huns to renew 
their ravages. 

But Rufinus had a foe to encounter more formidable than 
the eunuchs of the palace. He had long since drawn on 
himself the enmity of Stilicho; and that general, who had 
already divided between the royal brothers the jewels and 
other private property of their deceased father, now pre- 
pared to apportion between the two empires the troops 
which had been assembled under the imperial standard for 
the late war. Under the pretext of the ravages of the 
Goths, he marched in person at the head of the troops that 
were to return to the East ; and he had reached Thessalonica 
when he received an order from Arcadius, dictated by the 
fears of Rufinus, to send on the troops, but to advance no 
farther himself. He obeyed, committing to the soldiers the 
execution of the designs which he had formed against Rufi- 
nus. The army, led by Gainas, a Goth, marched for the 
capital; not a soldier divulged the secret of Stilicho; Rufi- 
nus was led to hope that they would aid his ambition, and he 
freely distributed to them a portion of his hoarded treasures. 
When they were within a mile of the city, (Nov. 27,) he and 
the emperor advanced to salute them. As he was passing 
along the ranks, the wings gradually closed and surrounded 
him : Gainas then gave the signal ; a soldier plunged his 
sword into his breast, and he fell dead at the feet of the em- 
peror. His lifeless body was abandoned to the rage of the 
populace, who treated it with every species of horrid indig- 
nity. His wife and daughter found sanctuary in a church, 
and they ended their days in a convent at Jerusalem.* 

* The power now fell into the hands of the eunuch Eutropius, whom 
Claudian, the panegyrist of Stilicho, lashes in so fearful a manner. Of 
the poet's satiric pojvers, the following is a specimen : — 



412 HONORius. [a. D. 396-398. 

The Goths, under the guidance of an intrepid young 
prince named Alaric, after ravaging the northern provinces, 
had advanced into Greece, (396.) They no where encoun- 
tered opposition ; from Mount Olympus to the extremities of 
Taenaron and Malea, they ravaged the country and pillaged 
the towns. At length (397) Stilicho debarked an army on 
the isthmus of Corinth, and advanced into Arcadia, to engage 
the invaders. By skilful movements he forced them to re- 
tire to Mount Pholoe, and, having diverted the course of the 
only stream that supplied them, and drawn a line of posts 
round them, he withdrew to share in the pleasures of the 
stage and dance in the cities of Greece. The soldiers, not 
being controlled by the presence of their general, quitted 
the works, and spread themselves over the country. Alaric, 
watching his opportunity, marched out with his booty and 
captives, crossed the Corinthian Gulf, and was master of 
Epirus before Stilicho knew of his escape. The Gothic 
prince had meantime been secretly negotiating a treaty with 
the ministers of Arcadius ; and just at this conjuncture he 
was appointed to the military command of eastern Illyricum, 
and Stilicho received orders to depart from the dominions of 
the emperor of the East. . 

The attention of Stilicho was next directed to Africa, 
where Gildo, the brother of the unfortunate Firmus, ruled 
in nearly total independence ; for, after the suppression of 
that rebel, the government of Africa had been conferred on 
Gildo, who had risen to the rank of count in the service of 
Rome. At a distance from the seat of empire, and there- 
fore secure from punishment, he indulged all his passions 
without restraint, and the unhappy country groaned beneath 
his tyranny. Persons of wealth were poisoned in order to 
obtain their properties ; the fairest matrons and maidens, 
after being forced to submit to the embraces of the tyrant, 
were abandoned to his swarthy Moorish and Gaetulian guards. 

Asperius nihil est humili, cum surgit in altutnj 
Cuncta ferit dum cuncta timet ; desaevit in omnes, 
Ut se posse putent ; nee bellua tetrior ulla 
Quam servi rabies in libera terga furentis. 
Agnoscit gemitus, et poenae parcere nescit 
Quam subiit, dominique memor quem verberat odit. 
Adde quod eunuchus nulla pietate movetur, 
Nee generi natisve eavet. dementia eunctis 
In similes, animosque ligant consortia damni. 
Iste nee eunuchis placidus, sed pejus in aurum 
jEstuat ; hoc uno fruitur succisa libido. 

In Eutrop. I. 181, seq. 



A. D. 398.] GILDO. 413 

His excesses were unnoticed by Theodosius, who resided at 
a distance; but he saw that from Stilicho he had no favor to 
expect, and he therefore craftily tendered his allegiance to 
the throne of Arcadius. The ministers of that prince, re- 
gardless of faith or honor, grasped at the delusive offer, and 
signified to Stilicho their right to Africa. Their claim was 
met by a decided negative. Stilicho instantly accused the 
African as a rebel to the senate, and that body declared him 
the enemy of the republic. The prudent Symmachus sug- 
gested the danger of the corn-ships being kept back, and the 
^city being thus exposed to famine ; but Stilicho had already 
provided for this case, and abundant supplies of corn from 
Gaul were poured into the granaries of Rome. 

The command of the force destined for the reduction of 
the Moorish tyrant was committed to his own brother Mas- 
cezel, whom he had forced to fly for his life, and whose 
innocent children he had murdered. The army of Mascezel 
consisted of only five thousand Gallic veterans; but these 
were deemed sufficient to overcome the naked and disorderly 
barbarians, who, to the number, it is said, of seventy thou- 
sand, marched under the banners of Gildo. Shortly after 
his landing, (398,) Mascezel gave the signal for engagement. 
He himself advanced before his troops with offers of par- 
don; one of the enemy's standard-bearers met him, and 
Mascezel, on his refusal to yield, struck off his arm with his 
sword. The standard fell to the ground ; the supposed vol- 
untary act was imitated by all the other standard-bearers : 
the cohorts proclaimed the name of Honorius; the barba- 
rians dispersed and returned to their homes ; and the victory 
was thus gained without the slightest effusion of blood. 
Gildo fled to the sea-shore, and, throwing himself into a 
small vessel, made sail for the East; but the wind drove him 
into the port of Tabraca, where he was seized by the inhab- 
itants and cast into prison, and he terminated his existence 
by his own hand. Mascezel, on his return, was received at 
court with great favor ; but, shortly after, as he was riding 
with Stilicho over a bridge, his horse threw him into the 
river ; and the attendants, observing that Stilicho smiled, 
gave him no aid, and he was drowned.* The guilt of his 
death was accordingly charged on the envy of Stilicho. 

* So Gibbon " softens," as he terms it, the narrative of Zosimus, 
"which, in its crude simplicity," he says, '< is almost incredible." 
Zosimus simply says (v. ii.) that the guards, on a given signal, pushed 
him into the river, and that Stilicho lauffhed. 
35* 



414 HONORius. [400-403. 

The young emperor, now in his fourteenth year, was uni- 
ted in marriage at this time with his cousin Maria, the 
daughter of Stilicho; but the consummation was deferred; 
and ten years after Maria died a virgin. Honorius, who was 
utterly devoid of talent or energy, passed his days in feeding 
poultry; and Stilicho, while he lived, was in reality the mon- 
arch of the West. 

This able man had soon again to measure arms with the 
ambitious Alaric. The Gothic prince, in addition to his 
rank of master of Illyricum, was now, by the unanimous 
suffrages of his countrymen, king of the Visigoths. For 
some years he acted a dubious part between the emperors of 
the East and the West; but he finally (400) resolved on the 
invasion and plunder of Italy. By arts or by arms he was 
for three years withheld from treading its plains; but at 
length (402) the court of Milan was alarmed by intelligence 
of the approach of the Goths. The council of the young 
emperor proposed an instant flight to Gaul. Stilicho, alone 
undismayed, pledged himself, if the court would only remain 
tranquil during his absence, to return, within a limited time, 
at the head of a powerful army. He accordingly crossed the 
Alps in the depth of winter, collected the troops of Gaul and 
Britain, and took into pay a large body of Alemannic cav- 
alry. But, while he was thus engaged, the Goths had ad- 
vanced to Milan; and Honorius had fled and shut himself 
up in the town of Asta (Asti) in Liguria, where he was 
closely besieged by the Gothic monarch. Stilicho hastened 
to his relief; by skilful manceuvres he cut off the supplies of 
the barbarians, and he gradually drew round them a line of 
fortifications. 

During these operations, the festival of Easter arrived, 
(403.) While the Goths were devoutly celebrating it, their 
camp at Pollentia (twenty-five miles south-east of Turin) 
was assailed by the imperial cavalry. Alaric speedily drew 
out and formed his men ; the battle was maintained through- 
out the day with mutual valor ; but in the evening the Goths 
retired. Their camp was forced ; the booty and captives 
were all recovered ; and the wife of Alaric remained a pris- 
oner in the hands of the victors. Alaric was, however, pre- 
paring, at the head of his remaining troops, to cross the 
Apennines and push on for Rome ; but his council of war- 
riors forced him to listen to the offers of Stilicho, and con- 
clude a treaty for the evacuation of Italy. He repassed the 
Po, with the secret design of seizing the city of Verona, 



A. D. 404-406.] INVASION OF ITALY. 415 

advancing rapidly into Germany, passing the Rhine, and 
invading the defenceless provinces of Gaul. But Stilicho, 
who had a secret intelligence with some of the Gothic 
chiefs, learned his design, and, at a short distance from 
Verona, the Goths were assailed on all sides by the imperial 
troops. Their loss was considerable; Alaric himself owed 
his safety to the swiftness of his horse. He then assembled 
his remaining forces amid the adjacent rocks, where he pre- 
pared to stand a siege ; but hunger and desertion soon forced 
him to accept another treaty ; and Italy was at length de- 
livered from the Goths, though but for a time. 

In the following year, (404,) Honorius visited the ancient 
capital of the empire. He entered it in triumphal pomp, 
Stilicho seated in his chariot by his side. His abode in 
the capital is distinguished by an edict abolishing the 
combats of gladiators; for, as these inhuman contests were 
going on one day in the amphitheatre, an Asiatic monk, 
named Telemachus, urged by a generous impulse, sprang 
into the arena to separate the combatants. The enraged 
spectators overwhelmed him with a shower of stones ; and 
he perished a martyr in the sacred cause of humanity. 
When the rage of the people subsided, they were filled with 
penitence ; a ready obedience was yielded to the edict is- 
sued on the occasion by the emperor, and the barbarous and 
inhuman gladiatorial combats ceased forever. 

As invasions of the barbarians were now matter of con- 
stant apprehension, and neither Rome nor Milan was con- 
sidered to be sufficiently secure for the imperial residence, 
Honorius fixed his abode at Ravenna. This city, situated 
on the Adriatic, was strongly fortified ; and its only approach 
on the land side was by a causeway leading through a deep 
morass.* Strong thus by nature and art, Ravenna hence- 
forth continued, for more than three centuries, to be the seat 
of government in Italy. 

The apprehensions of the emperor and his court vi^ere not 
unfounded ; for, within two years after the departure of Al- 
aric, a numerous host of Germans poured into Italy, (406.) 
This host, which is stated at 200,000 fighting men, accom- 
panied by their wives, children, and slaves, was composed of 
adventurers from most of the German and Sarmatian tribes. 
The leader-in-chief was named Radagaisus. The task of 

* Owing to the recession of the waters of the Mediterranean, Ra- 
venna is now four miles from the sea. 



41:6 HONORius. [a. d. 407-408. 

defending Italy fell, as before, to Stilicho; he caused the 
Ceeble emperor to shut himself up in Ravenna; while he 
himself, with an army of between thirty and forty thousand 
men, the utmost force he was able to collect, took his post 
at Pavia, (Ticinum.) The barbarians advanced unopposed, 
pillaging the towns and cities on their way ; they crossed 
the Po and the Apennines, and laid siege to the city of Flor- 
ence in Tuscany. Stilicho, who had, at length, been joined 
by the troops which he had summoned from the provinces, 
and by barbarian auxiliaries, now advanced to its relief. 
Adopting his former policy, he avoided a general action, and 
gradually drew a strong line of fortifications around the posi- 
tion occupied by the host of Radagaisus. Famine soon 
spread its ravages among the men and horses; their furious 
assaults on the lines of circumvallation were repelled ; and 
they were at length obliged to surrender at discretion. 
Radagaisus was beheaded by order of Stilicho ; the common 
barbarians were sold for slaves. 

The principal nations composing the host of Radagaisus 
were the Suevians, Burgundians, Vandals, and Alans; and 
only a portion of their immense force had entered Italy. In 
the following winter, those who had remained in Germany 
crossed the Rhine never to retreat; and, in less than two 
years, after devastating the Gallic provinces, they had 
reached the Pyrenees. At this time, the trans-Alpine prov- 
inces had ceased to obey the emperor Honorius. The 
army of Britain had invested with the purple a private sol- 
dier of the name of Constantine, (407;) and, on his passing 
over to Gaul, all the cities which had escaped the barbarians 
yielded him submission. The troops of Honorius besieged 
him in Vienne, but they were forced to make a precipitate 
retreat over the Alps; and, in the following year, (408,) 
Constantine, with little difficulty, made himself master of 
Spain. 

After the retreat of Alaric from Italy, relations of friend- 
ship were formed between that prince and Stilicho ; and the 
Goth, quitting the service of the emperor of the East, was 
appointed commander of the Roman forces in all lilyricum ; 
the eastern portion of which region Stilicho reclaimed from 
the court of Byzantium. A semblance of war ensued be- 
tween the two empires ; and Alaric carried on some feeble 
operations in Epirus and Thessaly, for which he furnished a 
long account of expenses to the court of Ravenna, intima- 
ting, though in respectful terms, that a refusal to comply 



A.D. 408.] MURDER OF STILICHO. 417 

with his demands might prove hazardous. Stilicho deem- 
ing it the wiser course to yield, his authority silenced all 
opposition ; and the sum of 4000 pounds of gold, under the 
name of a subsidy, was promised to Alaric. 

While the empire was thus distracted and menaced on all 
sides, court intrigue deprived it of the only man capable of 
saving it. Olympius, a man whom the influence of Stilicho 
had advanced to a high office at court, and who concealed 
his vices under the mask of extreme piety, was secretly un- 
dermining his benefactor in the mind of the feeble emperor. 
He made Honorius believe that Stilicho had formed designs 
on his life and throne. As the troops, which, on account of 
the menaces of Alaric, were lying north of the Po, were 
composed of different elements — some devoted, others hos- 
tile to Stilicho — Honorius, at the instigation of Olympius, 
announced his intention of reviewing them in their different 
quarters. He visited Stilicho at Bologna, where the barba- 
rian troops (those most devoted to the general) lay, and 
thence proceeded to Pavia, to the camp of the Roman troops, 
the enemies of Stilicho and the barbarians. By the arts of 
Olympius, these troops had been prepared to enact the part 
required of them, and, after listening to an address from the 
emperor, they rose and massacred all the friends of Stilicho, 
including the highest officers of the empire. Honorius, who 
was ignorant of the projected massacre, was filled with ter- 
ror ; but he was finally persuaded to approve of what had 
been done, and commend the actors. Stilicho, on hearing 
of the massacre at Pavia, held a council of the leaders of the 
auxiliaries ; they were unanimous in urging him to ven- 
geance, but he hesitated to involve the empire in a civil war. 
His confederates retired in disgust at his irresolution, and in 
the night his camp was assailed by the troops of a Gothic 
leader named Sarus, who was one of the band of his enemies 
His faithful Hunnish guards were cut to pieces, and he him- 
self escaped with difficulty. He retired to Ravenna, and took 
sanctuary in a church ; by artifice and perjury the bishop was 
induced to yield him up, and he was beheaded as soon as 
he had passed the sacred threshold, (Aug. 23.) His son 
was shortly after put to death; his daughter Thermantia, 
who, like her sister, was the emperor's virgin wife, was di- 
vorced; his memory was defamed; his friends were tortured 
and murdered. 

Among those involved in the fate of the great Stilicho was 
the poet Claudian, the last ancient poet in whose verses the 

AAA 



418 HONORIUS. [a. D. 408. 

Latin language appears with any lustre. CJaudian was born 
at Alexandria in Egypt. The Latin, therefore, was not his 
mother tongue ; yet he made it the graceful and elegant ve- 
hicle of such poetry as had not been equalled, except by 
Statins, since the Augustan age. Panegyric and satire were 
the principal themes of his muse. He may be called the 
poet laureate of Stilicho, whose victories he celebrates, and 
whose enemies he overwhelms with invective. His diction 
is harmonious, though not perfectly pure; his descriptions 
are rich and luxuriant ; he possessed the rare talent of ele- 
vating the mean and diversifying the similar without offend- 
ing the good sense or taste of the reader. In a word, Clau- 
dian closes with dignity the band of Latin poets.* 

While, by the base arts of courtiers, Italy was thus de- 
prived of her only stay, Alaric lay encamped on her confines. 
As if to aid him in his projects, the fanatic Olympius caused 
an edict to be issued excluding all those who did not hold 
the orthodox creed from civil and military employment ; and 
on one day the wives and children of the barbarians in the 
Roman service (a body of 30,000 men) were massacred in 
the towns of Italy, in which they were dwelling as hostages. 
These troops vowed a heavy revenge; and Alaric, certain of 
.their cooperation, hesitated not to enter Italy as the avenger 
of the death of Stilicho, and of his own wrongs. Stilicho 
had perished in the montli of August, and in the following 
October, Alaric passed the Alps, the Po, the Apennines ; and 
Rome, for the first time since the days of Hannibal, saw a 
foreign enemy before her gates. The Gothic forces closely 
blockaded all the approaches, and stopped the navigation of 
the Tiber. Famine and pestilence soon began to spread 
their ravages through the crowded population. At length, 
two senators were sent as envoys to the Gothic camp. When 
led before Alaric, they spoke of the dignity and number of 
the Roman people, and bade him to prepare for battle if he 
would not grant reasonable terms. " The thicker the hay, 
the easier it is mowed," replied the Goth, with a laugh. He 
then demanded, as a ransom, all the gold, silver, and precious 
movables in the city, and all the barbarian slaves. He final- 

* Gibbon (chap, xxx.) draws the character of this poet with tolerable 
accuracy. He evidently admired him. We cannot, however, con- 
cede, that in Claudian " it would not be easy to produce a passage that 
deserves the epithet of sublime or pathetic ; to select a verse that melts 
the heart or enlarges the imagination." Of the last, at least, there are 
many. 



A.D. 409.] ATTALUS MADE EMPEROR. 419 

ly consented to take 5,000 pounds of gold, 30,000 of silver, 
3,000 of pepper, 4,000 robes of silk, and 3,000 pieces of 
scarlet cloth ; and, on the delivery of these articles, Alaric led 
his troops into Tuscany for the winter. His army, aug- 
mented by the barbarians who had been in the Roman ser- 
vice, and by 40,000 slaves, counted, at the least, 100,000 
fighting men, (409.) 

The early part of the year was spent in fruitless negotia^ 
tions for peace. Olympius was in his turn undermined by 
the intrigues of the palace, and forced to seek his safety in 
flight. A brave barbarian officer, named Gennerid, was 
placed at the head of the army, and 10,000 Huns were taken 
into pay. But the intrigues of the palace still prevailed, and 
an oath was extorted from the principal officers of the state 
and army, never, under any circumstances, to consent to a 
peace with the insolent invader of Italy. All hopes of accom- 
modation being thus cut off, Alaric led his troops once more 
toward Rome. By making himself master of the port of 
Ostia,* where the corn for the supply of the city was ware- 
housed, he speedily put an end to all thoughts of resistance; 
and the senate, at his dictation, invested with the purple At- 
talus, the prefect of the city. The new emperor bestowed 
on his benefactor the rank of commander-in-chief of the 
armies of the West, which he had sought in vain from the 
ministers of Honorius, and made Adolphus, [Athanlf,) the 
Gothic monarch's brother-in-law, count of the domestics, 
with the custody of the royal person. Milan cheerfully ac- 
knowledged the new emperor, whom Alaric conducted in 
triumph almost to the gates of Ravenna, where an embassy 
from Honorius, offering to divide the empire with him, en- 
tered the camp. Attalus insisted on his resignation ; and so 
desperate in reality did the affairs of Honorius now seem, 
that Jovius, his principal minister, and Valens, his general, 
two of the envoys, went over to the side of his rival. 

Honorius was in despair, preparing to fly to the Eastern 
court, when a body of four thousand veterans landed in Ra- 
venna. As these sufficed for its defence, he now felt some- 
what reassured, and he was soon further cheered by the 
arrival of a large sum of money, sent by Count Heraclian, 
who had defeated the troops sent to Africa by Attalus, and 
distressed the Romans by preventing the exportation of corn 
and oil. Alaric, wearied with the insolence and imprudence 

* See above, p. 80. 



420 HONORius. [a. D. 410-412. 

of the emperor of his own creation, and acted on by the arts 
of the treacherous Jovius, at length publicly stripped him 
of his diadem and purple, which he sent to Honorius as a 
pledge of amity. He then advanced to within three miles of 
Ravenna, in the full expectation that a peace would now be 
concluded ,• but Sarus the Goth, at the head of three hun- 
dred men, sallied from one of the gates, and cut to pieces a 
division of his troops ; and a herald soon after appeared to 
declare that the emperor would never enter into friendship 
with the invader of Italy. 

The Gothic monarch, bent on vengeance, led his troops 
once more to Rome. The senate prepared to make a des- 
perate resistance ; but treachery rendered their plans unavail- 
ing. At midnight, (Aug. 24, 410,) the Salarian gate was 
silently opened, and the Goths were admitted ; and Rome, 
for the first time since the days of Camillus, (a space of eight 
centuries,) became the prey of a foreign enemy. All the 
horrors and atrocities consequent on the capture of a large 
town by storm, were felt by the unhappy city; but the evils 
were mitigated, in many instances, by the Christian feeling 
of the Arian Goths ; and it is acknowledged that Rome 
suffered far less at their hands, than it did afterwards, in the 
16th century, from the Catholic troops of the orthodox em- 
peror Charles V. Numbers were, of course, reduced from 
affluence or comfort to slavery or poverty, and the provinces 
of Africa and the East were filled with fugitives from the 
ancient capital of the empire. 

Alaric remained only six days in Rome ; he then led his 
troops southwards, captured Nola and other towns, and, on 
coming to the Straits of Rhegium, prepared to pass over and 
make the conquest of Sicily prelusive to that of Africa. But 
a storm shattered his transports, and a premature death ter- 
minated his visions of dominion. To form a grave for the 
mighty Alaric, the course of the Busentinus, a small river 
which washes the walls of Consentia, was diverted, and his 
corpse, royally arrayed, was deposited in its bed. The 
stream was then restored to its original channel ; and, that 
the secret of the resting-place of Alaric might never be 
known, a massacre was made of all the prisoners who had 
been engaged in the work. 

The royal dignity, after the death of Alaric, was conferred 
on Adolphus. This prince, who was of a prudent and mod- 
erate temper, effected a treaty with the court of Ravenna, 
and the Visigoths at length (412) evacuated Italy, after a 



A. D. 413.] BARBARIANS IN SPAIN. 4211 

possession of four years. But they never again returned to 
their former seats ; Adolphus, in the character of a Roman 
general, led his troops against the invaders and the usurpers- 
of southern Gaul ; and his authority was speedily acknowl- 
edged from the Mediterranean to the Ocean. A marriage 
into the royal house of Theodosius also contributed to give 
him consequence. Placidia, the daughter of that monarch 
by Galla, had been detained in the Gothic camp since the 
period of the first siege of Rome by Alaric ; and, though the 
court of Honorius rejected with disdain Adolphus's propo- 
sals of marriage, and insisted on her restitution, the princess 
herself was less haughty, and she readily gave her hand to 
the brave and handsome monarch of the Goths. 

Count Heraclian, who had been loyal to Honorius when 
his cause seemed nearly hopeless, became a rebel when Italy 
was delivered of the Goths. He assumed the purple, (413,) 
and, embarking a numerous army in a large fleet, sailed from 
Africa, and entered the Tiber. But, as he was on the road to 
Rome, he was met and defeated by one of the imperial gen- 
erals, and he fled back to Africa in a single ship. He sought 
refuge in the temple of Memory, at Carthage, whence he was 
taken and beheaded. 

It would be tedious were we to relate the actions and 
deaths of Constantine, of Maximus, Jovinus, Sebastian, and: 
others, who at this period aimed at empire in Gaul and Spain, 
and perished in the attempt. We therefore pass them over 
in silence, and proceed to relate the conquest of Spain by 
the Goths. 

The fruitful and wealthy provinces of Spain had, in conse- 
quence of its position, been strangers to war for the last four 
centuries, with the exception of the irruption of the Germans 
in the time of Gallienus ; it was now to suffer in common 
with the rest of the empire. The barbarians who had passed 
the Rhine in 406, had reached the foot of the Pyrenees, and 
the barbarian mercenaries, called Honorians, to whom the 
usurper Constantine had committed the passes of those 
mountains, turning traitors to their trust, admitted the con- 
federate Germans and Alans into the heart of Spain, (409.) 
Rapine and devastation traversed the land from the Pyrenees 
to the Straits of Gades ; and when Spain had thus been ex- 
hausted of its strength and wealth, the conquerors set down, 
resolved to occupy it permanently. The Suevians and Van- 
dals settled in the north; the Alans spread over the central 
region from sea to sea; a branch of the Vandals took posses- 

CONTIN. 36 



422 VALENTINIAN III. [a. d. 414-423. 

sion of Baetica. They were not, however, suffered to remain 
long undisturbed. Adolphus, covetous of military fame, 
readily accepted the task of recovering Spain for the empire. 
He led his Goths through the Pyrenees, (414,) and surprised 
the city of Barcelona, llis career of victory, however, was 
cut short ere long (Aug. 415) by the dagger of an assassin j 
and Singaric, a brother of Sarus, was placed on the vacant 
throne. The six children of Adolphus by a former marriage 
were put to death, and Placidia was treated as a slave by 
this tyrant. But he also perished by assassination on the 
seventh day of his reign, and the choice of the nation gave 
the throne to a chief named Waliia. Within the space of 
four years, this valiant warrior restored Spain to the empire; 
and he then (419) repassed the Pyrenees, and fixed his royal 
residence at Toulouse, ruling the country from the Loire to 
the confines of Spain. 

When the Goths were thus established in the south and 
west of France, the Burgundians obtained permanent posses- 
sion of the Upper Germany, and their name remains in its 
modern appellation. The Lower Germany was at the same 
time occupied by the Franks. Armorica, or the north-v/est 
portion of Gaul, and the island of Britain, being left to their 
own resources, assumed an attitude of independence. 

In this condition of his empire, that most feeble and con- 
temptible of princes, Honorius, emperor of the West, died 
(423) of dropsy, after an inglorious reign of twenty-eight 
years. 



Valentinian III. 

A. u. 117—61208. A. D. 423—455. 

Honorius died childless ; but the western branch of the line 
of Theodosius did not expire with him. Placidia, whom we 
have seen treated with such indignity after the death of her 
husband, had been redeemed for 600,000 measures of wheat; 
and her brother had obliged her to give her hand to a brave 
and faithful general, named Constantius, by whom she had 
two children, a daughter named Honoria, and a son Valen- 
tinian. At her impulsion, Constantius claimed and obtained 
the title of Augustus, and a share in the empire ; but he died 
shortly after, and, by the intrigues of a steward and a nurse, 
enmity was excited between the emperor and his sister, to 
whom he had been hitherto most fondly attached. As the 



A. D. 425-428.] COUNT boniface. 423 

Gothic soldiers took the part of their queen, and the city of 
Ravenna was filled with tumult, Placidia was induced to re- 
tire from the scene. She went to the court of Byzantium, 
where she was most kindly received by the reigning empe- 
ror, Theodosius II. ; and when, a few months after, intelli- 
gence arrived of the death of Honorius, the Eastern monarch 
prepared to assert by arms the claim of her son to the vacant 
throne, which had been occupied by John, the Primicerius, 
or principal secretary of the late emperor. 

It was some time before the troops of the East were in 
readiness to attempt the conquest of Italy. At length (425) 
they set forth ; Aquileia was surprised, and one of the Eastern 
commanders, who had been made a prisoner and carried into 
Ravenna, having contrived to gain over the garrison, the 
usurper was seized and beheaded. Though Theodosius 
might have asserted his claim to the whole empire, he con- 
tented himself with the addition of western Illyricum to his 
dominions, and he caused his young cousin, Valentinian, to 
be invested with the monarchy of the West. A marriage, 
which afterwards took place, was agreed on, Valentinian be- 
ing to espouse, when of suitable age, Eudoxia, the daughter 
of Theodosius. As the young monarch was now only six 
years old, the government of himself and his empire naturally 
fell into the hands of his mother, and she retained her power 
for a space of five-and-twenty years. 

The armies of the West were commanded by two able men, 
Boniface and vEtius. The former, who held the government 
of Africa, had been at all times attached to the cause of Pla- 
cidia; the latter, who was of barbaric origin, had joined the 
late usurper, and had even brought a force of 60,000 Huns as 
far as the confines of Italy, to his aid, when he heard of his 
fate. Having negotiated a treaty for the retreat of the bar- 
barians, he entered the service of Valentinian; and he soon 
gained great influence over the mind of Placidia. This in- 
fluence he employed for the destruction of his rival. He se- 
cretly persuaded Placidia to recall Boniface from his govern- 
ment, and he at the same time advised Boniface to refuse obe- 
dience, assuring him that his death was intended, Boniface 
fell into the trap laid for him. He armed in his defence, and 
repelled the first attacks made on him ; but feeling that he 
could not long resist single-handed, he sent to propose an al- 
liance to the king of the Vandals, (428.) 

When the Goths recovered Spain for Honorius, the Sue- 
vians and Vandals still remained unsubdued in Gallicia. 



424 TALENTINIAN III. [a. d. 429-439. 

Dissension soon broke out between them; the Vandals pre- 
vailed ; but, on the approach of an imperial army, they broke 
up, and marched for Baetica, and, having there defeated a 
superior force of Romans and Goths, they became masters 
of the entire province, which has derived from them its 
name of Andalusia, 

The kinor of the Vandals at this time was named Gen- 
seric. He is described as of middle stature, slow of speech, 
a contemner of luxury, prone to anger, covetous of gain, 
skilled in gaining nations and in sowing dissensions among 
his enemies. In the May of 429, he embarked his troops 
in vessels furnished by Boniface and the Spaniards, and 
crossed the Straits of Gades. His whole force, composed 
of Vandals, Alans, Goths, and others, did not exceed 50,000 
men ; but he easily induced the Moors to unite with him, 
and the persecuted Donatists regarded as a deliverer the 
Christian, though not orthodox, Genseric. Boniface, when 
too late, saw the error he had committed ; the letters of 
yEtius being shown and compared, in an interview between 
him and an envoy sent from court, he discovered the fraud 
of which he had been the victim, and he resolved to re- 
turn to his allegiance ; and when Genseric refused to evac- 
uate the country, he led out his troops and gave him battle. 
But he met with a total defeat, (430;) the whole country, 
far and wide, was now exposed to the ravages of the Van- 
dals, and the cities of Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo Regius, 
alone remained to the empire. In this last, the modern 
Bona, Count Boniface shut himself up, and held it for four- 
teen months against the Vandals. At length, (431,) being 
reenforced by troops from the East, he marched out and 
gave them battle, but again met with a total defeat. Giving 
now all up for lost, he got on shipboard, and sailed for Italy. 
Placidia received him with favor, and raised him to high rank ; 
but ^tius, who was in Gaul, soon appeared with a body of 
barbarians. The quarrel between the rivals was decided by 
arms, (432;) victory declared for Boniface, but he received 
a mortal wound in the conflict, ^tius was proclaimed a 
rebel; he sought refuge with the Huns, and the empire thus 
remained without a general. Nevertheless, the progress of 
Genseric, retarded by other means, was slow. Cirta and 
Carthage still held out ; and it was not till the tenth year af- 
ter his landing in Africa, (439,) that the latter was taken, 
and that by surprise, not force. 

JEtius did not long remain in exile. Supported by the 



A. D. 439.] ATTILA. 425 

arms of 60,000 Huns, he was soon able to dictate his own 
terms to the empress Placidia, and, with the title of Patrician 
and the command of the entire army, he in effect governed 
the empire, which he alone was able to preserve from ruin. 
He still kept up an intercourse with the Huns ; he was on 
terms of friendship with their king, in whose camp his son 
was educated ; he employed Huns in the defence of Gaul, 
and he placed colonies of Alans in the territories of Valens 
and Orleans. 

The monarch of the Huns at this time was the mighty 
Attila. His power was obeyed from the banks of the Rhine 
to far beyond the Volga ; the Scandinavian peninsula is said 
to have yielded him tribute ; his possessions extended south- 
wards fifteen days' journey below the Danube ; the empire of 
the East, which he had ravaged to the very gates of Constan- 
tinople, paid him an annual subsidy ; and all the influence 
of ^tius had been unable to preserve that of the West from 
a similar decrradation. 

Genseric, menaced by both empires, had sought the alliance 
of the potent monarch of the Huns ; and it was at his insti- 
gation that Attila had invaded the Eastern empire, and thus 
obliged an expedition destined for Africa to be recalled. 
The same artful prince was the cause of the Hunnish hordes 
being poured into the Western empire. The occasion was 
as follows : 

The successor of Wallia on the throne of the Visigoths 
was Theodoric, the son of the great Alaric, a prince of con- 
siderable ability and vigor. Ambitious to extend his domin- 
ions, he laid siege to the city of Aries; but iEtius hastened 
to its defence, and the Goths were forced to retire with loss. 
Shortly after, Count Litorius, a Roman general, advanced at 
the head of an army of Huns to the very gates of Toulouse ; 
but his rashness brought on him a total defeat and personal 
captivity. JEtius soon appeared with a powerful force ; an in- 
stant engagement was expected, but the generals on both sides 
\were prudent, and a treaty of amity was concluded, (439.) 
Theodoric thenceforth devoted himself to the promotion of 
the welfare of his subjects, and he became universally loved 
and respected. He had six sons and two daughters; the 
two latter were married, the one to the son of the king of 
the Suevians in Spain, the other to Hunneric, the eldest son 
of Genseric. But, high as she stood in birth and alliance, 
the Gothic princess was doomed to be the victim of tyranny. 

36* B B B 



426 VALENTINIAN III. [a. D. 451. 

Genseric, suspecting that she had conspired to poison him, 
cut off her nose and ears, and sent her back thus mutilated 
to her father. Theodoric resolved to avenge her injuries ; 
the Romans agreed to supply him with ships, arms, and 
money, and he was preparing for the invasion of Africa, 
when Genseric once more called on Attila for aid, and the 
storm was again diverted. 

It is also said that Attila was incited to arms by a Roman 
lady of royal descent. Honoria, the sister of Valentinian, 
had had an intrigue with her chamberlain Eugenius. When 
the consequences of her frailty became apparent, her mother 
sent her away to Constantinople, and caused her to be im- 
mured in a nunnery. Hating a life of celibacy and restraint, 
Honoria despatched a trusty eunuch to Attila, with a ring as 
the pledge of her affection. Attila accepted the gift, and he 
sent to demand the princess and a share of the empire. His 
demand was of course refused; and Honoria was sent back 
to Italy, where the ceremony of her marriage with some ob- 
scure person having been performed, she was shut up in 
prison for the rest of her days. 

Urged by the various claimants for his aid, Attila moved 
from his royal village in the plains of Hungary, (451.) Di- 
visions of all his subject nations marched beneath his banner. 
He crossed the Rhine at its confluence with the Neckar, and 
poured his hordes over the plains of Belgium and France. 
The celestial aid of saints or the strength of fortifications 
preserved Troyes and Paris, but other towns and cities were 
taken and plundered without mercy, and the Hunnish mon- 
arch at length pitched his tents beneath the walls of Orleans, 
which Sangiban, king of the Alans, had engaged to betray. 
But the plot was discovered, the attacks of the Huns were 
repelled, and at the sight of the banners of ^Etius and The- 
odoric, who were marching to its relief, the prudent Hun 
drew off his troops, and retired to the plains of Champagne, 
which were better adapted for the operations of cavalry. 

iEtius, aided by the eloquence of the senator Avitus, had 
succeeded in inducing Theodoric, whose first plan had been 
to await the invaders within his own territories, to share in 
the common defence of Gaul. The Burgundians, the Salian 
Franks, the Saxons, Alans, Armoricans, and others, had also 
been prevailed on to aid the common cause ; and at the head 
of a host composed of such various materials, iEtius and 
Theodoric prepared to engage the host of Attila. 



A. D. 451-452.] ATTILA IN ITALY. ^ 427 

The armies encountered on the plains of Chalons. Attila, 
with his Huns, occupied the centre of his line; the Rugians, 
Herulans, Franks, Burgundians, and others, were ranged on 
each side of them ; the right wing was formed by the Gepi- 
dans, the left by the Ostrogoths. On the side of the allies, 
Sangiban and his Alans were placed in the centre, where 
they might be watched, ^tius commanded on the left, 
Theodoric on the right. The battle was long, obstinate, and 
bloody. The Huns easily pierced through the yielding 
centre, and then directed their whole force against the Visi- 
goths ; and Theodoric, as he was cheering his men, fell by 
the javelin of an Ostrogothic chief. But his son Torris- 
mond, who was stationed on an adjacent eminence, when he 
saw the Visigoths yielding, hastened to restore the battle, 
and Attila was forced to retreat. The approach of night 
saved his troops from a total defeat ; they secured themselves 
within their wagon-fence, and Attila caused a pile to be 
made of saddles and horse-furniture, determined to fire it, 
and rush into the flames if his camp should be forced. But 
the dread of the valor inspired by despair withheld the allies 
from the attack ; and ^tius also feared the power of the 
Goths, if the Huns should be destroyed. He therefore pre- 
vailed on Torrismond to be content with the vengeance al- 
ready exacted for the fate of his father, and return to Tou- 
louse to secure his throne. The allies broke up and retired, 
and Attila was allowed to repass the Rhine unmolested. 

The policy of JEtius, in thus dismissing the Huns, was 
fatal to the empire. In the following spring, (452,) Attila 
again claimed the princess Honor ia and her treasures, and, 
meeting again with a refusal, he advanced and laid siege to 
Aquileia. After a siege of three months, this important 
city was carried by assault. All the cities north of the Po 
surrendered or were taken, ^tius in vain souorht to retard 
the myriads of the barbarians ; the timid Valentinian fled to 
Rome, and an embassy composed of Leo, the bishop of that 
city, and two eminent senators, was sent to deprecate the 
wrath of Attila, who now lay encamped on the shores of the 
Lake Benacus. Attila was superstitious; when he was re- 
minded that Alaric had not long survived the taking of 
Rome, he secretly shuddered at the omen ; and he consent- 
ed, on receiving an immense sum under the name of the 
dower of the princess Honoria, to evacuate Italy. He re- 
tired threatening dreadful vengeance if the princess were not 



428 VALENTINIAN III. [a. d. 453-455. 

delivered to his ambassador ; but in the following year, (453,) 
having drunk too freely on the night of his adding another 
maiden to his harem, he burst a vessel in his lungs, and was 
suffocated in his own blood. His funeral was celebrated 
with magnificence, after the usage of his nation. His 
mighty empire fell to pieces, and the Huns ceased to be 
formidable. 

Valentinian, worthless and dissolute, instead of viewing in 
^tius the saviour of his empire, feared and hated him with 
all the rancor of a petty mind. The son of JEtius was be- 
trothed to the emperor's daughter ; and when, one day, (451,) 
in the palace his father was urging the immediate marriage, 
Valentinian drew his sword for the first time in his life, and 
plunged it into the general's bosom ; the eunuchs and others 
hastened to follow his example, and yEtius expired pierced 
by a hundred wounds. His principal friends were sum- 
moned separately to the palace before the event could be 
known, and all were murdered. The loss of iEtius was 
universally deplored, and the contempt in which the em- 
peror had been held was converted into abhorrence, " I 
know not your motives and provocations," said a Roman 
whom he asked to approve the deed; "I only know that 
you have acted like a man who cuts off his right hand with 
his left." 

The feeble emperor did not long survive his able general. 
Among his other vices, Valentinian was addicted to gaming. 
He won, one day, a large sum of money from a wealthy sen- 
ator named Petronius Maximus, on whose chaste and beau- 
tiful wife he had long cast an eye of lust. As Maximus had 
not the money about him, the emperor exacted his ring from 
him by way of security ; and he forthwith sent it to his wife, 
with an order, in her husband's name, to wait on the empress 
Eudoxia. The lady, on arriving at the palace, was led into 
a private apartment ; Valentinian soon entered, and extorted 
by force the favors which she would not yield to solicitation. 
Her tears and her reproaches when she reached home ex- 
cited Maximus to vengeance. Two of the guards who had 
been attached to ^Etius readily consented to be his instru- 
ments, and, as Valentinian was viewing some military sports in 
the Field of Mars, they rushed on him, and stabbed him, none 
of those present offering to resist them, (March 16, 455.) 



A. D. 455.] MAXIMUS. 429 



Maximus, Avitus, Majorian, Severus, A?ithemius, Olyhrius, 
Glycerius, Nepos, Augustulus. 

A. u. 1208—1229. A. D. 455—476. 

The revenge of Maximus may have been stimulated by 
ambition, for he became the successor of the destroyer of his 
honor ; but the happiness, of which he had enjoyed a large 
portion when in a private station, departed the moment he 
mounted a throne, and he was heard to exclaim, in reference 
to a well-known story, " O fortunate Damocles ! thy reign 
began and ended with the same dinner." * 

Maximus married his son to the daughter of the late em- 
peror, and, as his wife died opportunely, he forced the re- 
luctant empress Eudoxia to give her hand to himself. In an 
unguarded hour he revealed to her the secret of his share in 
the death of her former husband ; and Eudoxia, who had 
loved Valentinian, worthless and faithless as he was, resolved 
to avenge him. She sent a secret invitation to Genseric, and 
ere long a fleet bearing a numerous army of Vandals and 
Moors entered the Tiber. Maximus hastened to fly from 
the city ; but the moment he appeared in the streets, he was 
assailed by a shower of stones ; a soldier gave him his first 
wound, and his mangled body was flung into the Tiber, (June 
12.) His reign had not lasted quite two months. 

As Genseric was approaching the city, he was met by a 
procession of the clergy headed by the bishop Leo. The 
bold and eloquent prelate, who had turned away the wrath 
of Attila, was able also to mitigate the ferocity of Genseric, 
who promised to spare the people and the buildings of Rome. 
But this promise was little more than illusory. Rome was 
delivered to pillage for a space of fourteen days ; churches, 
temples, and private houses, were plundered alike, and thou- 
sands of captives, among whom were the empress Eudoxia 
and her two daughters, were embarked for Africa, This 
calamity gave occasion to a noble display of genuine Chris- 
tian feeling in Deogratias, bishop of Carthage. He con- 

* [Damocles, having declared Dionysius of Sicily the happiest man 
on earth, was, by him, induced to try the happiness of royalty. No 
sooner had he mounted the tlxrone, than he saw a sword hanging by a 
single hair just over his head: he was glad to yield his place immC' 
diately. — J. T. S.] 



430 AVITUS, MAJORIAN. [a. d. 456-457. 

verted two large churches into hospitals, and himself attend- 
ed most assiduously to the sick among the unhappy captives. 

Maximus had committed the command of the troops in 
Gaul to the senator Avitus, a native of Auvergne, who, after 
passing thirty years of his life in the public service, had re- 
tired to the enjoyment of private life. Avitus was at Tou- 
louse negotiating a treaty with Theodoric, who by the murder 
of his brother Torrismond had occupied the Gothic throne, 
when he received intelligence of the death of Maximus. 
The prospect of empire attracted him ; the Goths gave him 
their suffrage ; an assemblage of the provinces of Gaul at 
Aries elected him, (Aug. 15 ;) the people of Italy submitted 
to him, and the emperor of the East acknowledged him. 

While the new emperor proceeded to Rome, Theodoric, 
as his general, crossed the Pyrenees to recover Spain, which 
had nearly all fallen under the power of the Suevians. His 
success was complete; he effectually broke the Suevian 
might, and he captured and put to death his brother-in-law, 
their king. But meantime Avitus had ceased to reign. The 
Romans disliked him as a foreigner, and Count Ricimer, a 
Goth, one of the commanders of the barbarian troops, having 
acquired fame by a victory over a Vandal fleet off Corsica, 
took advantage of it, and ordered Avitus to resign his dig- 
nity. He obeyed, (Oct. 16, 456,) and was made bishop of 
Placentia. But the senate voted his death; and he died or 
was murdered as he was on his way to secure himself in his 
native province. 

Ricimer, who, as being a barbarian by birth, could not 
himself mount the throne, governed Italy for some months 
under the title of Patrician. He then (457) bestowed the 
purple on his intimate friend Majorian, a man of primitive 
Roman virtue, who, in the words of the historian Procopius,* 
*' excelled in every virtue all who had ever reigned over the 
Romans." To restore the state to its former strength by the 
abolition of abuses, was the great object of this excellent 
man, and he made, with this view, many wise and salutary 
regulations. But the course of decline is not to be stopped ; 
and the reformer Majorian became an object of aversion to 
the degenerate Romans. 

Majorian, who was a warrior as well as a statesman, re- 
solved to achieve the conquest of Africa, and destroy the do- 

* De Bell. Vandal, i. 7. 



A. D. 461.] EMPERORS OF THE EAST. 431 

minion of the Vandals. As it was only among the barbarians 
that soldiers were now to be found, he enlisted troops from 
among the nations north of the Alps. He defeated Theodo- 
ric in battle, and, having reunited the greater part of Gaul 
and Spain to the empire, he assembled, in the port of Gar- 
th agena, a fleet of three hundred ships, with a large number 
of transports, for the invasion of Africa. It is said that he 
even ventured to appear as his own ambassador at Garthage, 
having changed the color of his hair.* But treachery ren- 
dered all his preparations unavailing. Guided by secret in- 
telligence, Genseric succeeded in destroying the imperial 
fleet in the harbor, and Majorian was forced to consent to a 
treaty. He returned to Italy to carry on his plans of refor- 
mation, and to prepare for future war ; but a sedition, fo- 
mented by Ricimer, broke out in the camp near Tortona, at 
the foot of the Alps, and Majorian was forced to abdicate. 
Five days after, (Aug. 7, 461,) he died, as was said, of a dys- 
entery. 

Ricimer, whose object was to reign under the name of an- 
other, resolved not to commit again the error of selecting a 
man of virtue and energy: his choice therefore fell on Se- 
verus, a man so obscure, that even his origin is hardly known ; 
and for a space of more than five years he governed Italy 
(almost all that remained of the empire) under the name of 
his puppet. But Marcellinus, who commanded in Dalmatia, 
disdaining to submit to him, held that province in independ- 
ence; and JEgidius, a general of much ability, maintained 
his dominion over nearly the whole of Gaul. Meantime the 
piratic squadrons of Genseric ravaged the coasts of Italy, 
and Ricimer was forced to seek, as a suppliant, aid from the 
court of Byzantium. 

Arcadius, who died in the year 408, had been succeeded 
by his son Theodosius IL, a child of seven years of age ; but 
during the reign of this prince, who was more conspicuous 
for piety than for the regal virtues, the empire was in reality 
governed by his sister Pulcheria, the only one of the descend- 
ants of the great Theodosius who inherited any portion of his 
talents. On his death, (459,) Pulcheria was proclaimed em- 
press. She had, after the fashionable superstition of that age, 
made a vow of perpetual virginity; but, aware of the pre- 
judices to which her sex was exposed, she selected as her 

* Procopius, ut supra. 



43'2 ANTHEMius. [a. d. 457-4T2. 

nominal husband a respectable senator named Marcian, a 
man now sixty years old, and made him her colleague in the 
empire. Marcian survived his wife; and on his death, (457,) 
the patrician Asper, who was in the East what Ricimer was 
in the West, conferred the vacant dignity on Leo, the steward 
of his household, who proved himself to be a monarch of 
ability and energy, and scorned to be the mere puppet of the 
patrician. 

It was to this empei'or that Ricimer made application for 
aid against the Vandals. Assistance was promised on condi- 
tion of the West receiving an emperor chosen by the court 
of Byzantium, Ricimer accepted the terms, and the person 
selected (467) was Anthemius, the son-in-law of the late em- 
peror Marcian. On his arrival at Rome, (Apr. 12,) Anthe- 
mius gave his daughter in marriage to Ricimer. Marcellinus 
readily acknowledged the new emperor, and accepted a com- 
mand in the expedition prepared against the Vandals. Vigor- 
ous exertions were made by both empires; and in the follow- 
ing year, (468,) while the troops of the West under Marcelli- 
nus were recovering the isles of the Mediterranean, an army 
from Egypt moved westwards, and a fleet of 1100 ships, carry- 
ing upwards of 100,000 men, sailed from the Hellespont, and 
entered the Bay of Carthage. Its commander, Basiliscue, the 
brother of Leo's empress, was, however, utterly devoid of tal- 
ent or experience. Instead of marching at once against the 
capital, he listened to the insidious proposals of Genseric, till 
the crafty Vandal, taking advantage of a change in the wind, 
sent, in the night, fire-ships among the imperial vessels. Bas- 
iliscus fled to Constantinople, after the loss of one half of his 
fleet and troops. Marcellinus was assassinated in Sicily ; and 
that island fell into the hands of Genseric,- whose fleets now 
met nowhere with resistance. 

Unity did not long continue between Anthemius and his 
haughty son-in-law. Ricimer quitted Rome, (471,) and fixed 
his abode at Milan. Italy was on the point of being the scene 
of a civil war, when the mediation of the bishop of Pavia 
succeeded in averting it. But the delay was brief, for the 
next year (472) Ricimer encamped with his army on the 
banks of the Anio, where he was joined by the man whom he 
had selected for the purple, Olybrius, a noble Roman, the 
husband ofPlacidia, the daughter of Valentinian III. Rome, 
after standing a siege of three months, was taken by storm 
and pillaged. Anthemius was put to death by order of his 



A. D. 475-476.] FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 433 

ruthless son-in-law, who followed him to the tomb within forty 
days, (Aug. 20,) being cut off in the midst of his triumph by 
a painful disorder. Olybrius himself was carried off by death 
only two months later, (Oct. 23.) 

The court of Byzantium, after some delay, bestowed the- 
sceptre of the West on Julius Nepos, the nephew of Marcel- 
linus. But meantime, Gundobald, a Burgundian, who had 
succeeded his uncle Ricimer in the command of his army, 
had invested a soldier named Glycerins with the imperial 
purple. Gundobald, however, having departed to assert his 
claim to the kingdom of Burgundy, Glycerins did not feel 
himself strong enough to maintain a contest for the empire, 
and he retired and became bishop of Salona. Nepos, after a 
brief reign of less than three years, (475,) on the occasion of 
a revolt of the barbarian troops, abandoned the empire, and 
fled to his principality in Dalmatia. 

These barbarians in the Roman pay were termed Confed- 
erates ; they were drawn from various nations, of which the 
principal were the Herulans, Alans, Turcilingans, and Rugi^ 
ans. Their commander was Orestes, a Pannonian by birth,, 
who had been secretary to Attila. On the death of that mon^ 
arch, he had entered the Roman service j and Nepos had raised 
him to the dignity of Patrician, and given him the command 
of the army. By his artful conduct, Orestes gained the troops 
over to his interest, and at his impulsion they rose against 
Nepos. From some unknown motive, Orestes, though not a 
barbarian, did not himself assume the purple. He conferred: 
it (476) on his son, named Romulus Augustus, or, as he is 
usually called, Augustulus, under whose name he preferred to 
reign. But his power was of brief duration ; his barbarian 
soldiers, excited by the example of their brethren in Gaul, 
Spain, and Africa, where they had acquired permanent landed 
possessions, insisted on a third part of the lands of Italy being 
divided among them. Orestes gave a prompt refusal. One 
of the commanders, named Odoacer, then proposed to his 
comrades to unite under him, and they would soon, he assured 
them, make the patrician yield to their demands. Forthwith 
they flocked from all parts to the standard of Odoacer. Ores- 
tes shut himself up in Pavia ; but the town was taken by 
storm, and he was put to death by the victors. His son, on 
laying down his purple, was allowed to retire to the villa of 
Lucullus in Campania, with an annual pension of 6,000 
pieces of gold. Odoacer took the title of king of Italy, under 

CONTIN. 37 C C 



434 FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 

which he reigned for a space of eighteen years, when his do- 
minion was overthrown by the Ostrogoths. 

The empire of the West was now at an end. The parts of 
which it had been composed were never again united ; they each 
formed a separate and independent state. In all, the govern- 
ment and the lands were held by the German conquerors. 
We will briefly notice these new states. 

After the defeat and death of Odoacer, the Ostrogoths re- 
tained possession of Italy for a term of seventy-five years, 
when (568) their power was overthrown by the Langobards, 
or Lombards, whose dominion lasted for two centuries. 

The Vandals retained possession of Africa till about the 
middle of the sixth century, when they were conquered by 
the great Belisarius, the general of Justinian, emperor of the 
East. Africa remained part of the Eastern empire till it was 
conquered by the Arabs in the following century. 

The Visigoths obtained possession of the entire Spanish 
peninsula, which they retained till the period of the invasion 
of the Arabs. Their dominions in the south of France were 
all, excepting a small portion, reduced by Clovis, the first king 
of the Franks. 

The Burgundians and Alemans had founded states in Swit- 
zerland, the east of France, and along the Rhine; but, like 
the Goths, they were successively reduced, and obliged to ac- 
knowledge the dominion of Clovis the Frank. Nearly the 
whole of France obeyed this able prince; but at his death 
(511) his dominions were divided among his four sons. 

In the reign of Valentinian III. the Roman troops had 
been withdrawn from Britain. The unwarlike inhabitants, 
unable to defend themselves against the savage Caledonians, 
called to their aid (449) the Saxon chiefs Hengist and Horsa. 
Their allies became their enemies, and in a short time tlie 
greater part of the island was conquered by the Saxons and 
their kindred tribes. 



We thus have witnessed the rise and progress, the decline 
and fall, of that mighty empire, which, commencing in a vil- 
lage on the banks of the Tiber, finally made the Ocean and 
the Euphrates its boundaries. Its fall was in the order of 
Nature, which has set limits to all things human ; but it is not 
unworthy of remark that, at the time when the Roman repub- 



FALL OF THE EMPIRE. 435 

lie was at the very height of its power, the Tuscan augurs 
ventured to foretell the period of Roman dominion. Accord- 
ing to the rules of their art, they inferred that the twelve vul- 
tures seen by Romulus, denoted the twelve centuries of rule 
assigned to his city by the decrees of Heaven. The accom- 
plishment of that prophecy is a curious fact ; but history con- 
tains many such coincidences. The rise of Rome is one of 
the most extraordinary phenomena in the annals of the world; 
its fall was an ordinary event, and contains nothing to excite 
surprise. The Roman empire, as left by Augustus, embraced 
the whole civilization of the West, while on all its confines 
dwelt poor but brave and energetic nations, eager, when an 
occasion should offer, to rush in and seize its wealth. It was 
only therefore by the conservation of the military spirit, by 
which it had been acquired, that it could be retained ; but we 
have seen how early and how totally this spirit became ex- 
tinct. When the nobles and men of property were immersed 
in luxury and sensual indulgence; when the country was de- 
populated or filled only with slaves, the cities thronged with 
an idle, beggarly, turbulent population, vigorous only for evil ; 
when the provincials were so beaten to the earth by excessive 
taxation, that the rule of barbarian conquerors was looked to 
as an alleviation; when the noble, elevating, soul-expanding 
religion of the gospel had been degraded by Oriental ascet- 
icism into a slavish, enervating superstition ; when, finally, the 
defence of the empire against the barbarians was intrusted 
to the barbarians themselves, — its fnll was assured. A new 
order of things was to arise out of the union of German energy 
with Roman civilization, from which, after a series of many 
centuries, were to result the social institutions of modern Eu- 
rope, the colonization of the most distant regions of the earth, 
and the mighty political events which yet lie hidden in the 
womb of Time. 



APPENDIX. 



A. Page 1. — Authorities. 

Dion Cassias wrote the history of Rome, from the foundation of the 
city to his own consulate, in the reign of Alexander Severus. Of this 
work the first books exist only in fragments, and the portion from the 
reign of Claudius to Uie end only in the Epitome of the modern Greek 
Xiphilinus. For the period from the death of M. Aurelius to the end, 
Dion is a contemporary authority. 

Velleius Paterculus was the contemporary of Augustus and Tiberius, 
(see above, p. 115;) the second book of his history extends from the 
Viriathian war, B. C 148, to the death of Livia Augusta, A. D. 29. 

Tacitus lived in the period from Nero to Trajan, both inclusive. His 
Annals, in sixteen books, extended from the death of Augustus to that 
of Nero. Of these, the part of the fifth book containing the fall of 
Sejanus, the seventh to the tenth, and part of the eleventh, to A.D. 47, 
and the end of the sixteenth, are lost. The greater portion of his His- 
tories, which extended from the death of Nero to that of Doraitian, has 
also perished. They end with the conference between Cerialis and 
Civilis, (above, p. 150.) 

Suetonius Tranquillus, the contemporary of Tacitus, (above, p. 167,) 
has left minute biographies of the Ccesars from C Julius Caesar to 
Domitian, inclusive. 

Herodian was the contemporary of Dion Cassius, to whom, as an his- 
torian, he is much inferior. His work extends from the death of M. 
Aurelius to the reign of Gordian. Gibbon calls him "an elegant" 
historian, and, to a certain extent, he is such ; but he is feeble, negli- 
gent, devoid of political wisdom, and utterly careless of chronology. 
He reminds us more of Dionysius Halicarnassensis than of Thucyd- 
ides. 

The Augustan History consists of a series of lives of all the emperors 
and tyrants or aspirants to empire, from Hadrian to Carus and his sons. 
The authors are ^lius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, .Stilus Lamprid- 
ius, Trebellius Pollio, and Flavins Vopiscus. As writers, none of them 
possess any merit ; but they may claim some praise on account of the 
letters and other original documents which they have preserved. 

Ammianus Marcellinus, a Greek by birth, wrote in Latin. His 
object seems to have been to be the continuator of Tacitus ; for his 
work, which extended from the accession of Nerva to the death of Va- 
lens, commenced where Tacitus had ended. Of the thirty-one books 
of which his work originally consisted, the first thirteen are lost ; the 
fourteenth commences with the account of the conduct of the Caesar 



APPENDIX. 437 

Gallus, in the reign of Constantius. Ammianus is a judicious, honest, 
and impartial historian, but his style is inflated and disagreeable. 

Zosimus wrote in Greek about the time of the fall of the Western 
empire. His work, of which only six books remain, after a sketch of 
the history of the emperors from Augustus to Diocletian, relates public 
events in detail thence to the attack on the Goths by Sarus, (above, 
p. 420.) The remainder of the work is lost, as also are the end of the 
first and commencement of the second books, which contained the 
reign of Diocletian. Zosiraus was a pagan, and he is inveterately hos- 
tile to Constantine and the Christian emperors. 

The Epitomators are, in Greek, Zonaras ; in Latin, Eutropius, Festus 
ttufus, Aurelius Victor, and Orosius. The first of these was a modern 
Greek monk, who wrote a Chronicle in 18 books, which extends from 
the Creation to the death of the Byzantine emperor John Alexius. 
Eutropius, who had been secretary to Constantine, and had shared in 
Julian's expedition to Persia, wrote, for the use of the emperor Valens, 
an epitome of the Roman history, from Romulus to the death of Jovian. 
His work was continued by the Lombard historian, Paulus Diaconus. 
A similar epitome, embracing the same period, was addressed to Valen- 
tinian by Festus Rufus. Under the name of Aurelius Victor, the con 
temporary of Ammianus, we possess two short pieces; the one, i?e 
CcBsarihus, containing brief notices of the emperors, from Augustus to 
Julian ; the other, the Epitome^ similar notices of all, from Augustus to 
Theodosius. The History of Orosius, a Christian presbyter, extends 
from the Creation to W^allia, the Visigoth king, (above p. 422.) 

The Panegyrists, Mamertinus, Eumenius, Nazarius, pronounced lau 
datory discourses before the emperors Maximian, Constantine, and Con 
stantius. Mamertinus the younger delivered the eulogiura of Julian ; 
Ausonius, that of Gratian and Pacatus, and that of Theodosius. These 
laudatory effusions contain many facts of which we find no account 
elsewhere. It is to be observed that their authors were all born and 
brought up in Gaul. The modern French have retained the custom 
of pronouncing 6loges. 

The Ecclesiastical historians also furnish many events to civil histo- 
ry. Eusebius wrote a life of Constantine. The history of Socrates 
extends from the conversion of that emperor to the ] 7th consulate of 
Theodosius II. ; that of Sozomen, from the same event to the death 
of Honorius ; that of Theodoret, from the rise of Arianism to Theodo- 
sius II., with whose reign the history of Evagrius commences, and 
extends into the sixth century. The history of the Arian Philostor- 
gius, of which only fragments remain, extended from the rise of 
Arianism to the reign of Valentinian III. 

The Chronologists, Eusebius Cassiodorus, Jerome, Idatius, and oth- 
ers, supply occasional historic facts; so also do the writings of the 
contemporary Fathers, Ambrose, Jerome, etc. In like manner, the 
poets Claudian, Sidonius Apollinaris, and Prudentius, and the sophists, 
such as Libanius, are at times historic authorities. 

For the affairs of the Goths, their national historian Jornandes is 
often our best guide. 

On looking over this list of authorities, it will be seen that the im- 
portant reigns of Trajan and Diocletian are those for which we have 
the least materials : for the former, we have only the Panegyric of 
Pliny, Xiphilin's epitome of Dion, and the Epitomators; for the latter, 
only these last. 



438 APPENDIX. 



C. Page 14. — The German Tribes. 

The following trans-Rhenic German tribes and nations are men 
tioned in the preceding History. The seats assigned them are either 
those where they were first fovmd, or where they subsequently settled. 

Frisians. In West Friesland, Groningen, and north part of Over- 
Tssel. 

Chaucans. Along the coast, from the Ems to the Elbe in East 
Friesland, Oldenburg, and Bremen. 

Langobards^ (i. e. Longbeards.) West of the Elbe in Luneburg 
and Alt-Mark. 

Rugians. On the Oder, in Pomerania. 

Burgu?idians. Original seats between the Oder and the Vistula, in 
the Netz district. 

Vandals. North side of the Ricsengeburg and Lausitz. 

Herulans. Upper Hungary. 

Bructerans. To the south of the Frisians, between the Saal and the 
Ems. 

Sicambrians. Along the Rhine, from Emmerich to the Sieg; east- 
wards to the Bructerans ; part of Cleves and adjoining states. 

Angrivarians. South of the Chaucans, along the Ems. 

Chamavans. From the south of the Angrivarians to the Lippe. 

Usipetans. South of the Lippe. 

Tencterans. South of the Usipetans ; on the Rhine, about Cologne 
and Bonn. 

Cheruscans. In and on both sides of the Hartz forest. 

Chattans. South of the Cheruscans, in Hesse, Fulda, Nassau, and 
parts of Franconia and Westphalia. 

Memans, {i. e. All-men.) Along the Rhine, from the Main to the 
Neckar. 

Suevians. Under this general name are included the Quadans, 
Marcomans, and other nations. The proper Suevians seem to have 
inhabited the modern Suabia. 

Marcomans, {i. e. March-men, or Borderers.) In Bohemia, and 
southwards. 

Q,uadans. Along the Danube, from the Gran into Austria and Mo- 
ravia. 



THE END. 



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